Black Paper Moon
by SpiderLover
Summary: It really should have been over after everything they'd been through. However, something dark and sinister is stirring- and it's up to them to stop it. Rated T for mild profanity. Based on the manga (despite the title)
1. Chapter 1

It really should have been over.

It had been six months, since Kid became the new Shinigami, Asura was trapped on the moon, and Kim became ambassador of witches and enforcer of the peace treaty between them and the DWMA.

It should have been over. Then why did she still feel the pang of fear and regret every night while lying in bed?

Maka gave up on trying to sleep or drown out Soul's snores from the other room, and let her thoughts overtake her. She had come a long, long way from being the rule stickler from around a year ago, but wasn't exactly sure she improved. Now, she was a rule-breaker; the thought horrified her. But what else could she be after all the events took place? In fact, the only rule she had followed in a long time was leaving Crona on the moon.

She regretted that everyday. No one would be able to quell her feelings of worthlessness after she sped back to earth with BlackStar and Kid (who was now fully symmetrical), being fully aware that she left her latest friend with one of the deadliest demons ever in a pool of black blood. Her feelings of grief only intensified when she got to know that the Shinigami had died, leaving Kid to take over his role. Kid, for his part didn't look all that grieving at the moment, but honestly, Maka hadn't seen him in weeks.

The last time she saw him, Kid had changed. He still talked to her (which was more incredible than it sounded, considering he had to manage the world), but seemed more distant and troubled than before, only really talking to Stein, Marie and her dad who were all sworn to secrecy. Liz and Patty didn't seem to know what was going on either, Liz seeming more worried than before, and Patty giggling less and less every time Maka saw them. She supposed it was due to the additional responsibilities of them being Death Scythes (weren't they now by default?), but the funny thing was that Maka hadn't seen them with Kid for a long time.

BlackStar had really changed as well, which Maka guessed was about not being able to defeat Asura. He had become quieter, more contemplative and seemed to devote majority of his time and energy to training vigorously, or being with Angela the baby witch. Tsubaki had told her that Mifune's death and the DWMA's decision to take in Angela without telling her the truth had really bothered him. Maka hadn't tried to comfort him- their personalities were incompatible and clashed too much. The last time she tried to connect with him, he shunned her away, declaring that he had things to do. Like Kid, she hadn't seen him for a long time. Tsubaki for her part remained more or less the same, although she had been disappearing for long stretches of time with BlackStar, or sat in class alone, often tuning out the world, or having conversations with Soul that seemed to often escalate into muted but intense arguments. Soul always refused to tell Maka about what their fights were about, but she suspected that it was because of BlackStar's odd behavior more than anything else.

Soul, like the others, had changed too. Unlike Maka, he saw Kid more regularly, as he was technically now Kid's Death Scythe, but always said that Kid was closed of. Maka knew he was probably lying- Soul was supposed to keep Kid's information confidential, which kind of stung. She and Soul were supposed to be partners, but now it seemed like they were drifting apart more than ever.

Maka sighed and dragged her arm over her eyes. She just wanted all of this to be over.

She didn't know when she fell asleep, but woke up to Soul knocking sharply on her door, a hand over his eyes in an attempt of being a gentleman. It wasn't necessary- Maka was decent.

"You're late," he told her, looking at the floor even after she told him that he could look. "I made breakfast."

"Today is Blaire's day," Maka said, fixing her hair into her ponytails. "Where is she?"

"She went home with some guy last night," Soul said, making Maka cringe. "And besides, she makes fish all the time. Thought you'd appreciate something different."

"That's sweet, Soul," she said moving past him to the door. She felt the familiar twinge of sadness though. They weren't as close as before, especially not after _that_. Then she noticed the smoke billowing out of the kitchen.

"Holy Shinigami, Soul! What did you do?"

"Well, you see…"

Neither of them ended up in the DWMA until five minutes before the second class started.

.

.

"Hi Tsubaki," Maka muttered, slipping into Sid-sensei's class.

"Hello, Maka, Soul," she gave Soul an icy glance (or as icy as someone as nice as her could make it), who returned it with a curt nod. Clearly they hadn't resolved their argument that probably escalated during their weapons only class- Maka never actually saw them arguing, only relying on Liz's reports to even know what was going on.

"Did we miss anything?" Maka asked, trying to push away the awkwardness.

"Nothing much," Tsubaki said, staring out of the window. "Sid-sensei has been distracted for some time now."

Sure enough, their zombie teacher was idly explaining something about advanced soul compatibility of the board, impervious to the students ignoring him. Tsubaki simply resumed staring out of the window intently as if her life depended on it. Maka tapped Soul's shoulder and gave him her _what's with her_ glance. Soul took one look at the girl and shook his head in his _don't even bother_ fashion.

Well, Maka wouldn't be satisfied with that. She poked him even harder until he flinched (the perks of being the fit meister) and glared at him more intensely, not caring if she seemed needy or annoying, until he glared back. That was a new one. Soul was all don't-care looks and defeated glances, but he rarely ever tried to combat her glares. It actually stung a little.

"Ok," Maka left it off, leaving Soul to join Tsubaki in staring out of the window.

"He didn't come back home last night, didn't he?" asked Soul.

Tsubaki moistened her lips and blinked multiple times rapidly before whispering "no."

.

.

Soul didn't show up to the next lesson- practical training for meisters and weapons. Although, in all fairness, she and Soul didn't really need to. He'd perfected his weapon transformation, and as long as she kept up her constant workouts, they'd be fine. However, Maka was beginning to think that their soul compatibility might be an issue from now on- they hadn't been talking and they hadn't attempted a soul resonance for ages now. And she wasn't going to try now- she was still mad at him and they were still awkward after _that._

However, she had to explain to Nygus-sensei exactly why Soul, BlackStar _and_ Tsubaki were missing. And to make matters worse, she had to sit out of class for that day, just when she was looking to blow off some steam. Now she had to wallow in her own thoughts instead- again, until a body plopped down next to her. It was Nygus-sensei.

"Maka, are you all right?" she asked, removing the bandages from her mouth as she spoke. Honestly, Maka really didn't think that wearing nothing but bandages was necessary- Sid-sensei didn't even really dress like a stereotypical zombie anymore. And besides, didn't Nygus-sensei get… cold?

"I'm fine, sensei," she said, cringing when she realized that that was the most unconvincing statement ever.

Nygus-sensei quirked her eyebrows, but didn't make an attempt to deny or accept what Maka said.

"It's been a long time since I saw you Spartoi members hang out together," the woman mused quietly.

"We don't need to anymore," Maka replied. "After Asura was defeated and we allied with the witches, there hasn't been a problem we need to fix."

"Not professionally, no," the teacher said. "But you are all friends, right?"

Maka actually had to rethink that one. Yes, she was close to Soul (of course) and they often hung out with BlackStar, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, Liz and Patty, and they had enough soul compatibility to perform a group resonance (albeit somewhat shakily due to Maka's and BlackStar's contrasting yet infuriatingly similar personalities), but other than that, they weren't really connected on a mental level except for her and Soul, and even that felt doubtful now. Their rag-tag group had come together, since they had all failed to collect souls and hence had to interact with each other more often. As for the other members of the Spartoi, only Maka and Ox got along pretty well, and that was more competition than anything. According to Patty, Kim used to have a small crush on BlackStar (who was also friends with Kilik), and that was all the personal connection they had.

"Sort of," Maka finally said. Nygus-sensei didn't ask any more questions.

Honestly speaking, Maka wasn't too upset with not having more 'mental resonance' with anyone. It was just that the incidents in the Book of Eibon sort of messed her up, and it wasn't the fact that Soul was prettier than her in her girl form. The visions she got of all her flaws coming up to her… was, with no other words to put it, awful. Her being worthless and not good with combat (Patty, a weapon, was better than her for Shinigami's sake), but the part when she realized just how incompatible she and Soul were really impacted everything. And judging from his odd behavior after the reconnected, something had happened to him too.

A coppery taste filled her mouth- she bit her lip too hard. Blood. She hadn't tasted it ever since the battle on the moon.

Blood. Black blood. Crona.

That messed her up as well. The thought of her newest pink haired friend smiling gently as he drowned in his own blood haunted her every night, and she wished every day that they'd all fought harder to stop Crona.

It was a mystery if Crona was even still alive. Kid wasn't doing anything to be sure of the fact to Maka's, knowledge which right now wasn't reliable.

"Holy Shinigami- Maka are you ok?" Harvard's eyes widened. Maka saw her reflection in his glasses. Blood was dribbling down her mouth and on her chin, due to her gnawing at her mouth too much. Without thinking, she bit down again. It reminded her of Crona, slowly sinking into a black pool.

"You have to stop now before you get hurt," Harvard crouched down in front of her. "We don't even have a nurse if something goes wrong."

She was about to scoff- since when was a cut lip ever that serious- when Kim and Jakie burst into the room, making a beeline for Nygus-sensei.

"Where the hell is he?" Kim spat out, startling Maka. Nygus-sensei didn't look offended or angry at being talked to in such a way; she only seemed tired.

"Sid went to the grounds to mediate a fight," Mygus-sensei replied. "He's busy- tell that to Kid."

"I can't, sensei," Kim hissed. "Kid's not going to be here for long. We need to fill Sid-sensei in."

Wait. Kid was in academy right now? And what was so urgent that Sid-sensei needed to be pulled out for? Wasn't everything over?

Maka quickly stood up, stepping over Harvard who scoffed indignantly. "Kim!" she cried out, making the pink haired girl turn around. "What is going on?" She sounded more desperate than she wanted to, but hoped that would work out in her favor.

Unfortunately, Kim only glared at her and stormed out the door. Jakie hung back, giving Maka a sympathetic look.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you, Maka," she said quietly. "It's classified information."

And with that, she hurried out of the room to catch up with her meister. Maka just sat down defeated.

.

.

Soul kicked over a stone, barely watching BlackStar fight some other irrelevant student. Inside, he was seething with guilt of randomly leaving Maka alone in a meisters and weapons class, without leaving her an explanation. That was a jerk move on his part. Now she and Tsubaki would have to explain to Nygus-sensei of their absence. If Tsubaki had even bothered to show up.

Now, he'd dulled over his feelings by stating himself to cool to worry about things like this. He was a master of doing that, ever since he realized that his brother Wes was better than him and everybody knew that. He shook off the feeling of inferiority by acting like he was above it all- like he had better plans. His mother actually believed him, and as soon as he displayed his innate weapon ability, he was shipped off to the DWMA where he met Maka and BlackStar a month later.

Sid-sensei was mediating the fight, as BlackStar beat the tar out of the random student. Probably the only thing stopping Sid-sensei from intervening was the fact that Tsubaki wasn't there to cause further damage. This was all stopped short after Kim and Jakie stormed in and whispered something hastily in Sid-sensei's ear.

"BlackStar, you're going to have to stop the fight," he said. "He's already unconscious and I have to go now."

"What?" BlackStar cried out. "Come on, Sid! He's still moving!" the boy gave a tired groan. "And besides, this is unfair. You can't to that, Kim! This is all your fault!"

Kim turned pinker than her hair from rage and yelled back at him. "I can if I'm on Shinigami business!"

"I DON'T CARE!"

"THAT'S TOO BAD!"

Shinigami business? But Kid had told Soul that it was all over ages ago, after they'd both killed some random Kishin a month ago in India. Soul _had_ thought it was a bi odd- Asura was defeated so there ideally shouldn't have been any left, but Kid insisted that it was normal, and not to tell Maka. Now Soul knew how naïve he was. Slaying a Kishin that wasn't supposed to exist, without Liz and Patty and Kid instructing that Maka (of all people, Maka) shouldn't know about it. And now Kid was having some meeting with Sid-sensei and who knows how many other people?

Something happened to Crona. Asura was either coming back to life (ha ha) after killing Crona, or the blood trap was slipping. Soul doubted it was the latter after only six months. Crona was stronger than that.

Maka needed to know about this. She was Crona's closest friend _and_ his partner, so she had every right to know. _Although we haven't been talking much lately. Ever since_ _ **that**_ _incident._

"Hey BlackStar," Soul said, watching his teal-haired friend slump morosely against the building wall, seemingly finished with the student. "Wanna follow Sid and figure of what's going on?"

"You go," he said, jumping off the side of the building. "I don't care," he called out from below.

Soul sighed and took BlackStar's place on the wall, the other student having dragged himself up and declaring that he was going to the nurse. Soul didn't bother telling him that they didn't have a new nurse yet. Medusa had been a darn good nurse (despite them later realizing she was a witch), and who ever was in charge was finding it difficult to replace her. If anyone was in charge. Did Kid even employ anyone after the battle on the moon?

"Hey," Maka said, walking up to him and sitting down beside him. "I was looking for you."

"How'd you find me?" he asked.

"I ran into BlackStar on my way. He said you were here."

"Oh."

"Yeah," they just sat awkwardly for a little while.

"Why did you ditch class?" she asked, just as he said, "I need to tell you something."

"Never mind that," she said. "What happened?"

Soul took a deep breath. This was going to be difficult.

.

.

"So Crona's either injured, dead or running out of energy?" Maka said, taking the news surprisingly normally. Soul was afraid she'd drag him to the moon to get their friend back.

"Yes," Soul said. "Or at least that's what I think. I don't know, maybe we're reading into this too much."

"No, I don't think you are," Maka sighed. "It makes sense. Why else would Kid want Sid-sensei now?"

She knew about that. "Puberty problems?"

Maka glared at him. "Kidding," he muttered, not wanting a Maka Chop. Seriously, he didn't know why she didn't try that on Asura. It would have defeated him- it was that lethal.

"But hey, are you ok?" he realized immediately that it was stupid question. Maka was really close to Crona, and hearing something like this would have destroyed her.

"I'm fine," she said firmly. "Want to go to Kid's place and get some answers?"

"Sure," he smirked. Even after everything, they were totally on the same page.

Using Maka's soul perception ability (to track down Kid in case he wasn't in the Shinigami's office), the two walked on.

"Oh yeah, Maka why are you covered in blood?"

Oh crap," she swiped her hands over her mouth again. "Just bit it too hard,"

Soul scoffed, causing Maka to hit him, which (he wouldn't admit out loud) actually hurt. Those were the benefits of being the meister- she had to be tough to swing him around.

"He's in the office," she whispered, holding out an arm to stop Soul from walking in any further.

"Nice," he said, "Should we eavesdrop?"

"No!" Maka hissed. We're going in."

"Wait- what- Maka no!" she said, but to no avail. Maka kicked the door open.

"This is so uncool," he groaned, but followed her none the less.

Kid was sitting at a table, along with Liz, Patty, Stein, Marie, Spirit, Sid, Nygus, Kim and Jakie. They all looked at Maka disbelievingly.

'Can I help you, Maka?" Kid finally asked.

"Yes you can," she said firmly, seemingly embarrassed by her spur of the moment decision. "You can start by telling me what happened to Crona."

"Nothing happened to Crona," Marie said soothingly, but no one listened to her.

"Soul! What did you tell her?" Kid hissed, looking extremely stressed.

"She had the right to know!" Soul said indignantly. "It's not cool to leave your partner in the dark."

"You're a Death Scythe!" Kid shot back. "You were sworn to confidentiality!"

"I don't care," Soul said. "My meister takes top priority." He thought he saw Maka scoff at that, but decided not to dwell on it at the moment.

"That's very admirable, Soul," Nygus said. "But you do have duties to fill as a Death Scythe. Whatever Shinigami tells you is no be kept a secret."

"Kid didn't tell me anything," Soul said, confused.

"Hang on. We are not on the same page here," Stein said. "Everyone shut up before you reveal more than you should."

"There's more?" Maka asked skeptically.

"Nice one, Stein," Spirit said frowming at the silver haired meister.

"Kid, what have you not been telling them?" asked Jakie. "Do Kim and I know about this?"

Confusion erupted between all members in the room, while Kid steadily grew redder and redder.

"ENOUGH!" Patty yelled. Everyone froze.

"Thank you Paty," said Kid. "Now Maka I can't tell you everything, but I can assure you, nothing happened to Crona."

"Not good enough, Kid," Maka snarled, taking a book out of her bag, ready to rip Kid a new one. Kid gulped. He'd never been on the receiving end of the Maka Chop, but from Soul's and Spirit's reports, it HURT.

"Back it up, guys," said Liz suddenly. "Maka, Soul, what do you know?"

"Random Kishins appearing out of no where, secret missions to destroy them and an order to not tell Maka anything."

"Secret missions?" Liz frowned. "What the hell, Kid? You took _Soul_ instead of us?"

Kid held his head in his hands. "Please, please, stop talking everyone. Somebody go call BlackStar and Tsubaki. Get Ox, Harvard and Kilik too. I'll explain what's happening and I'll answer your questions, but I'll do it when all the members of Spartoi are present. Does that work, Maka?"

"I guess," she said. "Ox, Harvard and Kilik are in the meister-weapon combat class which _someone_ failed to show up to" (Soul groaned) "and I have to idea where BlackStar and Tsubaki are."

"Noted," Kid said. "Sid-sensei, do you mind fetching BlackStar and Tsubaki for us?"

"They aren't together," Soul interjected. The zombie got up and groaned.

"This is not my day," he creaked off.

"Just have a seat," Kid said, not bothering to look at the two. "Help yourself to anything, but please wait for the others to show up before you start asking questions."

It was then that Soul realized how terrible Kid looked. His normally neat hair was mussed up, and there were dark circles under his eyes, which looked dull on his paler-than-usual face. His new Shinigami robes, which he took pride in were rumpled and he made no attempt to restore them back to their original symmetrical state. Whatever was happening wasn't good for Kid at all.

The doors swung open, and Ox, Harvard, Kilik and his weapons walked in, all looking curious. Soul saw Kilik's Spartoi gloves peeking out off his pocked- he thought this was all over. Right behind them was an exasperated looking Tsubaki and BlackStar, who was holding Angela.

"Angela can't be here during this meeting," Spirit said. BlackStar glared at him, but whispered in the little witches' ear, and she ran off to her room. That was odd. BlackStar usually never listened to people.

"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here," Kid said after Fire and Thunder stopped fighting each other for the last chair (they both just sat on Kilik's lap). "What I'm about to tell you could potentially endanger your lives for the foreseeable future. Anyone who doesn't want to take the risk can walk out now."

As expected, no one walked out.

"Ever since Asura has been trapped on the moon and the witches have been allied with the DWMA, all our enemies should have been defeated. This should have been all over."

Maka nodded silently. Soul knew she was thinking the same thing- he often heard her muttering that in her sleep at night.

"It turns out that the fall of Asura has spurred a new legion on Kishins to target our school. They haven't taken the 'death' of their master, or the 'betrayal' of the witches kindly. In fact, we found Erica dead three months ago."

There was a collective gasp from the students and Nygus. Soul vaguely remembered a shot frog-like woman with white hair. Coming to think of it, he hadn't seen her around in a long time.

"The Mizune sisters," Tsubaki's voice wavered. "Where are they?"

"In protective custody," Liz said.

"In prison," Kid said shortly.

"What the hell, Kid! They weren't supposed to know that!" Liz said angrily.

"They have the right to know that much," Kid said. "Mizune turned wild at the sight of Erica's body. She has been declared a danger, and is now in one of our holding cells."

"How about Free?" asked Ox. Free and Erica had been close- they'd even begun dating shortly after Kid had been made new Shinigami.

"He's missing," Kid said. "We've got Azuza, Clay and Akane leading the search parties to look for him."

"Is someone targeting the witches?" Sid asked.

"Honestly, we don't know," Marie said. "After Erica, no one we knew has mysteriously died."

"I've got the witch leaders reporting to me about any unusual incidences," Kim said. "So far, nothing really."

"Angela could be in danger though," Harvard said, eyeing BlackStar, who froze. "After all, she's an easy target."

"Angela," BlackStar hissed. "Is not in any danger. She's under my protection."

Harvard scoffed. "So you took Mifune's job now?"

BlackStar tensed. "Shut up, Harvard."

"Maybe we should tell her what really happened to Mifune. She has every right to know."

"Don't you dare!" BlackStar bounded to his feet, chair toppling over behind him. "The last thing we need right now is her running away from us!"

"Calm down!" Sid stood up and roared. Everyone fell silent. "No one is telling Angela anything until we've got this mess sorted out."

"That's not all of it," Kid had his head in his hands now. "We've got bigger problems that none of you know about."

"None of us?" Stein frowned. "Kid, you are supposed to tell Marie and I everything."

"I didn't know if it was a real threat," Kid said. "Around a month ago, Soul and I defeated a Kishin in India."

All eyes turned on Soul, who slumped into his seat. "Kid, it was a random Kishin who was rebelling against Asura's death," Soul tried to reason. "It wasn't any difficult to fight, and its soul sure as hell didn't taste any different."

Kid sighed (something he'd been doing a lot that day), and pulled two scrolls of paper from his sleeve. "Just look at this map."

One was a map of the world, with tiny cross marks on some places. Soul recognized the location in India and a few other places where he and Kid had gone to defeat a Kishin.

"Yeah, Bangkok, Hawaii and the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Kid, we were there some time ago," Liz said sharply.

"He went with you alone?" Patty asked confused. "Actually, that's not surprising. We went here, and here, and here…"

Spirit frowned. "Kid, some of these are places I went to with you as well. What's going on? These are just random places with no connection. "

Kid ignored him. "Now look at this map."

It was the exact same thing. "This is a map of the places the moon has shone for the same duration as well."

Everyone was silent, until Maka spoke up, voicing Kid's thoughts as well. "Kid, the moon shines on literally every place in the world at every time."

"That isn't the case anymore," he said firmly. "Ever since Asura's been drowning in Black Blood, the entire surface of the moon has been covered, except for the eye, which shines on only specific places every night."

Jackie sucked in her breath. "These Kishins have been located at the exact same place as where the moon's eye light was!"

"You mean-"

"Something in the moon has been triggering dead Kishins to resurrect," Kid said.

"Dead?" asked Nygus.

"Yes. After a couple, I realized that I've seen some of them before. After looking into the DWMA's records, every single Kishin I've defeated has previously been killed by someone in the DWMA."

"We're not safe anymore," Maka trembled. "All we've done in the past will come back to haunt us."

.

.

 **How did you like it?**

 **This is my first Soul Eater fanfic, based on the manga. I thought it ended at the perfect time for new headcannons and/or possible new adventures, so this is my idea of what will happen after the battle on the moon. I don't yet know if romance will be a large part of my story yet.**

 **Review and tell me what you think! Unless you haven't signed in, I'll be replying to them all.**

 **-SpiderLover :D**


	2. Chapter 2

Tsubaki could only stare dumbly as she followed BlackStar and Angela back to their house. The entire meeting that day had been too much to handle. They weren't safe anymore. BlackStar and her had killed some terrible Kishins in the past, but none of them were of extremely high difficulty or importance. There were only two souls she worried about coming back to life.

Firstly, Masamune. She had killed him around two years ago, and had been looking forward to leaving him out of her life forever. It had disturbed her for months after- Masamune was dangerous, cruel and crazed with revenge, but it hurt her to see her brother die, even when it was under her terms. Tsubaki didn't think she would be able to see him come back, thirsty for revenge.

The second person bothered her more. Mifune. She and BlackStar fought him three times. They won, then he won, and then they killed him. Mifune was skilled, no doubt. And she didn't think he was actually evil either; Angela was proof of that. But Angela had only recently gotten over Mifune's 'disappearance', and seeing Mifune reincarnated and ready for bloodbath was not going to help anyone. Besides, Angela was more powerful than the seven(?) year old looked. Ever since Maka let it slip that Angela's soul was _huge_ , Tsubaki had been keeping an eye on the little witch.

And if someone was targeting witches…

Erica was already dead, and she had been no weakling. Angela was a child who wasn't aware of her potential, and wasn't aware how to use it either. Facing whoever was targeting her, there were two outcomes. Angela would die, or she would live and realize her power. Both were situations no one wanted to face. What if Angela, like Free, turned?

That was something else Tsubaki worried about. Free loved Erika. He probably now blamed the DWMA for her death, and if he could avoid Azusa, Clay and Akane, she and BlackStar wouldn't have a chance in hell in finding him. But if Free found them, they were in for some serious trouble; Free couldn't die.

And Crona. If the moon itself was resurrecting old Kishins, with Asura on it, there was a very low chance of Crona not being aware of it or unaffected. Tsubaki wasn't particularly close to the pink haired meister, but she knew if anything happened to him, she and her friends would be devastated- Maka in particular.

She watched as BlackStar picket up Angela and began to talk to her with uncharacteristic gentleness, which melted her heart at the moment. Of course, BlackStar would be negatively impacted by whatever was going to happen. He would make sure that he would be in the thick of it, and with all the impulsive training he'd been doing lately…

But for now, Tsubaki could only worry. After all, it was what she did best nowadays.

.

.

"Why didn't you tell us?" a soft, but hard voice sounded. Kid whirled around and switched on the lights, going into full panic mode. There on his bed, was Liz, looking very forlorn.

"What do you mean, Liz?" he decided to play dumb. After all, there was still lots that Liz didn't and shouldn't know about yet.

"You know what I mean," she said sharply. "Going on missions with me individually, Patty individually. And you went on missions with Soul. Soul? It's not like you guys are close anyway. How do you even manage to handle him?"

Kid didn't expect Liz to be the first one to ask exactly how he and Soul were able to manage together; she was smarter than he made her out to be. Kid knew he had to answer carefully.

"It's because I'm the Shinigami," he decided to lie. "I can match my wavelength with everyone- everyone's equal."

Her eyes narrowed. "Bull," she said. "Do you think I'm an idiot? I can sense how compatible wavelengths are. When you are with Patty and me, our wavelengths are the strongest. It dulls down when it's with just one of us, so it's sure as hell not going to be functional with just you and Soul."

Well, that didn't work.

"Liz, I-"

"You know what?" she said angrily, sliding off the bed. "You don't want to tell me, fine. Don't you dare lie to me though- I thought that after becoming Shinigami you wouldn't go all distant, but I was wrong. Go defeat Kishins with Soul and see if I care."

She stormed off, leaving Kid on his own, feeling terrible. It wasn't like that, he wanted to tell her. He was just compromised right now.

.

.

Stein briefly looked up from his lab table. "Marie," he said.

"Mm?" she asked, not taking away her head from her hands.

"Why do you think Kid didn't tell us anything?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said tentatively. "But this whole situation- it's nuts. And-"

"We may have to face another war," he said. "You're pregnant."

"I am," she said. She was six months pregnant.

"You can't fight," he said firmly. She rolled her eyes, but Stein was right. No matter how much Marie wanted to be in the battle, and no matter how much of a valuable asset she would be to Kid's forces, their top priority was to keep the baby safe. Even it meant that the rest of the world would go to hell.

"Have you heard from Azusa yet?" Marie asked, already knowing the answer.

"No," he admitted. "Marie, you have to know that it's not necessarily a bad thing. They can't be too lax about sending random messages incase Free finds them first."

"I feel bad for him," Marie mused. "He really did love Erica."

Stein really didn't know how to respond to that, so he said:

"The last I heard, Akane was planning to recruit some EAT class students to join them. Says they'd be perfect."

"Huh. You mean some of the Spartoi?" Marie asked. It couldn't be though; it would have come up during the meeting with Kid.

"No, not them."

.

.

Akane Hoshi ushered the three girls into the car, and just as the door closed, Azusa zoomed away, weaving through alleys and probably breaking multiple traffic laws (which just went to show how stressed she was). Clay was right next to her, blonde hair disheveled and gripping the dashboard so tightly that his knuckled were pale and fingers were bruised.

"Good lord, Akane," a reproving blonde crossed her arms over her chest and glared. "You owe us an explanation. After only nine months in the EAT class, what could we possibly be required for?"

"Princess Anastasia," Akane quipped, an amused smile spreading across his face slowly. "Your presence here brings us complications. How does the Royal Family feel about you being here? After all, only Tatane and Harudori were requested. Really, we ought to send you right back."

That was a weak distraction and a blatant lie, which he knew. Anyone with half a brain could see that 'Princess Anastasia' was indeed required, and that this mission was of utmost importance. Akane was stressed, and wasn't willing to tell the truth yet. The blonde could see that, and zeroed in on him.

"Rubbish," she said, with all the grace, dignity and contempt of a queen dealing with disrespectful advisors. "You are fully aware that the three of us were personally requested, and that a year after our battle with Shaula Gorgon, I have distanced myself from the family. They no longer see me as an heir to the throne; my presence here is no more troublesome than that of my companions."

"I was teasing," he said, immediately backtracking, cursing his tiredness. "You are all required here; this is a mission of international security."

"Which is why you spent a good amount of time _teasing_ ," he thought he heard Azusa mutter, but her face was fixed on the road, impassive as ever.

"Look, we just want to help," the brunette with shoulder length hair said. "Tell us what's going on." Next to her was the third girl, who refused to look at anyone.

"Just stop," Clay spoke up. "I can now see why the Shinigami thought you'd be a good choice. Right now, after Asura's entrapment, we've got a crisis. Someone's targeting the witches and recently one was killed."

"Isn't that a good thing?" the brown haired one enquired.

"We allied with the witches, remember?" the blonde one quickly responded.

"Normally, a death of a witch wouldn't cause a crisis. However, two… people reacted to it violently, and now we have a rogue witch in a maximum security holding cell."

"And the other one?" the third girl asked.

"He escaped," Azusa said grimly. "Tsugumi Harudori, Meme Tatane, Anastasia Yngling, our job is to find the immortal werewolf 'Free' and track him down before he allies with any other Kishins or targets the DWMA once more."

.

.

"So now what?" Soul asked as he and his meister entered their house, after their remaining classes (Maka threatened to physically bind Soul to her if he even tried to ditch again. Even though Soul didn't mind Maka, he did NOT want to be next to her for the whole day, especially with the entire DWMA watching).

"Huh, Blaire's still gone," Maka remarked. Then, hearing what he said, "hm? Why'd you ask me?"

"You're the one with all the crazy plans here," he replied, not looking at her. "Honestly, after hearing all the weird stuff we were told today, I'm game for anything, even if it means going after Kid."

Maka frowned. "Are you sure about that?" she asked. "As a Death Scythe, you're obligated to follow his orders. Well, we all are since he's the Shinigami, but you have to especially; you report directly to him."

"Yeah, no," Soul walked into his room to change into his pajamas. "You heard him- Kid doesn't know what the heck he's doing. And besides, I'm Kid's friend; he won't do a thing to me."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Maka replied. Soul scoffed. "And I don't really think he's groping in the dark here. I have a feeling he knows more than he lets on."

"In what way?"

"He takes you on missions and your soul compatibility is terrible. Unless he deliberately wants to make things harder for himself, he's got some ulterior motive."

"Thing is, he isn't too bad at it," Soul said. He heard something crash from the next room, and winced, knowing that was the wrong thing to say. Even though he didn't know everything, he was aware that Maka had some insecurity about other people wielding him. The only reason he didn't bring it up, was because he would have to mention his fear of her using other weapons as well. That would be too painful.

"He's… good?" she said in a small voice, trying to act casual.

"I didn't say that," he joined her in front of the TV. Unlike him, she hadn't bothered to change her clothes. "It's just that he isn't as bad as BlackStar was when me and him tried to partner up."

Not entirely losing her worried expression, Maka giggled a little. "Mm, that was a disaster."

"Oh come on, it wasn't _that_ bad," Soul tried to goad her out of her unconfident state. If she cried, he'd feel like the biggest jerk ever. She didn't often (to his relief), but it didn't make it any less bad when she did.

"You said so yourself," she laughed. "And how could it not be? You sliced his head open!"

Soul cringed. He honestly tried to forget about that part. Although he wasn't squeamish about exactly where he touches opponents when Maka was fighting, seeing BlackStar's skull had kind of traumatized him. Thankfully, BlackStar being BlackStar had healed up well and quickly, which relieved Tsubaki as well.

Huh. Tsubaki. Soul willed himself to stop thinking about their arguments and then said something _really_ stupid. Even for his normal standards.

"It's weird," he said, making Maka look at him. "Kid has never trained with me; he always finds some excuse not to whenever I ask. So he honestly shouldn't be able to lift me in battle, which is strange, because he can."

He instantly regretted it, and had to muster up all him remaining courage to look at his companion on the sofa.

"So he's a natural?" Maka voice sounded strangled. She didn't look like she was about to cry, but there was this odd look in her eyes that Soul never wanted to see again. He understood where she was coming from, though. Even after he and Maka found out that they had compatible souls, it took them over a month of training before she was able to handle him properly.

"No! God no!" Soul said hurriedly, cursing his lack of foresight. "I'm saying it's not normal. Something is definitely up with our situation. Normally, every time a Shinigami has an intention of using the Death Scythe, they have to train with the weapon. Kid and I haven't done it at all, so he really shouldn't be able to pick me up in scythe form," grimacing about how _wrong_ that sounded, Soul realized that he was probably making things worse. "Every time we've fought, it's been against revived Kishins under the concentrated moonlight. I think that's what's messing with our soul wavelengths."

Maka looked dubious. "Soul, I don't know about that," ignoring his confusion, she went on. "No one's ever done a study on the effect of the moon on souls and compatibility. I think this whole theory is too… out there," she looked at him desperately, pleading for him to understand. "Maybe Kid's just really good at what he does."

"Maka, I've told you that's NOT the case," Soul was rapidly losing patience. "We're partners, remember? Kid's got nothing on us."

She refused to answer. Soul didn't bother going on either, so the pair sat in a tension-heavy silence, none of them bothering to watch what was playing on the TV in front of them. Blaire's absence just intensified their awkwardness; she always acted as an icebreaker of sorts (sexually, much to Maka's chagrin), and despite her over the top nature, she really did make for a light atmosphere.

It suddenly hit Soul that this was the first time in ages that he and Maka were having a _conversation_ , which wasn't punctuated with part truths, white lies or pure discomfort. He wished it could be under different circumstances other than debunking his wild theory or worrying about the fate of Death City, but this was a start. He was suddenly filled with pure determination, and positivity, which was so unlike him that it was almost scary.

"Well, if you won't believe me, then let me prove it to you," he said, jumping up. "We can-"

"Go to the area of concentrated moonlight and fight the revived Kishin ourselves!" Maka interrupted him, beaming. "I knew you weren't going to sit down and do nothing!"

Soul froze. This was _not_ what he planned. "Wait- no- Maka that's not what I was going to say!" It was true; he'd originally planned to tell her that he would try and convince Kid to let Maka come along on their Kishin hunts later. As in not at seven in the evening, when one of them was in their striped pajamas.

Maka completely ignored him. "We'll go right now. I've memorized the map, and the site of Kishin revival is just outside Death City. It'll be super easy to get there, if we fly there."

Well, that ruled out Soul's argument of no transport. Although he was proud that they could fly (which was pretty darn cool), it really limited his excuses when he didn't want to go anywhere.

"Maka, we're completely unprepared. This is dangerous," he said, hoping that it would deter her.

"When has that ever stopped us?" she ran to the room to change.

"Kid's going to be mad when he finds out. Are you alright with going against the Shinigami?" he thought that would convince her for sure.

"Soul, we literally disobeyed the Shinigami like three times by not killing Crona," Maka poked her head out the door to give him a (familiar) withering look. "Forgive me if I'm not shaking in my boots."

"You don't wear boots," Soul muttered. She either didn't hear him, or chose to ignore that.

"I'm wearing pajamas?" he tried as a last resort. Maka sprinted from her room and grabbed her keys.

"I see no difference from how you regularly dress. Besides, you'll be in scythe form so it doesn't matter. Now are you coming or do I have to throw you out the window?"

Soul sighed and followed her. This was crazy.

.

.

It was safe to say that Maka's gung-ho spirit had mostly worn off after three minutes of flying through the dark, chilly night. What was she thinking? This was madness for her; she always followed orders, made plans and restrained Soul when he did something stupid. _Although…_ she thought with a smirk, _I guess the tables have turned recently._

Out-of-characterness aside, she was exposing herself and Soul to a lot of danger, perhaps even for nothing at all. The last time she had been stupid and foolhardy…

A flash of black metal. Someone screaming her name as she was on the floor, frozen, mind numb about the inevitable. White hair obscuring her vision. Blood. Blood. More blood. A splattering sound of red globules smacking the floor and her face. Coppery smells of death. Soul falling down next to her, a hair away from no return.

Maka pushed that out of her mind. With Stein-sensei's help, she and Soul had worked out their feelings about that, with extremely high risks. He was over it now. She was over it now.

"Hey, I think we're almost there," Soul's (slightly disgruntled) voice came from the scythe. "There's a bunch of light shining on that field over there"

"Nice," Maka said. "We'll be landing soon then," she was glad about that. Even though she loved flying with Soul, a scythe wasn't the most comfortable thing to sit on. She looked forward to getting off, even if it meant that she'd have to fight some random, resurrected Kishin after.

Ugh. Maka _really_ hadn't thought this through. What if one of the more deadly Kishins were resurrected? Like Giriko, Arachne, or worse, Medusa? Would she and Soul even be able to fight them? She almost thought of telling Soul to forget the whole thing and turn around, be he spoke up before she could say anything.

"We're here," he said, touching the ground and she jumped off. "It's happening."

Right where there was the brightest moonlight, the ground bubbled, cracked and broke open to reveal a grotesque figure with enormous filthy claws emerging from the mud.

"Hello, Jack the Ripper," Maka smirked, glad that it was one of the easier Kishins they fought. "Don't look forward to being alive for too long."

Soul chortled a little and reverted back to scythe form in Maka's hand. It felt right this time, unlike what if felt with Kid (even though Kid wasn't too bad). It was him and Maka, just as how it was supposed to be.

Maka, on the other hand wasn't so certain. It felt good to wield Soul again, but something was severely off, but she wasn't able to pinpoint it. _You're being ridiculous_ , she said, shaking her head. _You just haven't worked together in a long time. Of course it's going to feel a bit odd._

Ignoring the sinking feeling in her mind, she jumped at the Kishin. Jack the Ripper was going down.

Fortunately for them, Jack was extremely slow, unused to being on land for long. Maka had a clear, opening immediately, right at the torso where it would be a sure kill.

"Nice! Hit 'im, Maka!" Soul shouted. She swing him at the Kishin with all her might, preparing for him to disintegrate, when-

The scythe passed through its chest, like it was made of air. Jack's leg connected with Maka's stomach, sending her a good few meters away, reeling in pain. Maka clutched onto Soul with dear life. What on Earth had happened?

"Soul! Did you see that?" She yelled, steadying herself up. "Is he a ghost?"

Soul was speechless. This had never happened with him and Kid before, and they had fought more powerful Kishins. What was going on?

"I don't think he's a ghost," Soul finally said. "He's been hitting us, and a ghost cant do that. But something is definitely wrong."

"No doubt," Maka decided to test her theory if the Kishin was actually a weird ghost after all, as Jack rambled towards her menacingly. She picked up a pebble and threw it at his leg, half expecting it to pass through like Soul did, but it only bounced off harmlessly. "I guess we'll have to take a crack at it again," she said, running for it at full speed again.

"We'll try Soul resonance," Soul said.

Unfortunately, Witch Hunter failed spectacularly as well. It harmlessly passed through Jack, and seemed to aggravate him further, which was why Maka and Soul were running away from it.

"Turn into a scythe again," Maka panted. "We haven't tried the Genie Hunter yet."

"Maka, we can't do it on command!" Soul protested, but turned into a scythe anyway. "Soul resonance!"

Just as they could feel their wavelengths combining, and Soul felt that it might work after all, Maka dropped him.

"What the heck!" he said while on the damp ground, but Maka wasn't listening. On her hands, where she had gripped the scythe, was burn marks.

"How did this happen?" she murmured, blowing on her hands in pain. "Soul, you're burning me again!"

"Oh no," it was happening once again. Fighting Jack the Ripper had somehow misaligned their wavelengths, and now Maka couldn't use Soul. However, something was really off. Unlike the last time when they were up against Free, the two hadn't had a fight recently, or experienced anything that would randomly change their compatibility. Was it the moonlight? Was Soul's theory correct?

"Hey," he said, feeling like the biggest jerk ever. "I know this is totally crazy, but we clearly can't get out of here quickly enough. You're going to have to fight with me anyway." He didn't like causing his meister pain, but he had to now, or they would be toast.

"I can try," her voice wavered. "But… I forgot my gloves at home. It's going to be a lot harder."

"Damn it," he transformed back into his regular human form. "Hang on."

Abandoning all logic, he threw a punch at Jack's stomach. The good news was that it connected. The bad news? It didn't seem to do much harm, and only aggravated the Kishin more.

Maka frowned. This was not a sustainable solution, but it could maybe buy them some time before she figured something out. As Soul dodged a blow from Jack, she wrapped her socks around her burnt hand and delivered another punch to the Kishin's face. It was certainly crude and unorthodox, but it was their only option other than running away. And Jack could definitely run faster than them.

She was a better hand-to-hand fighter than him due to her meister training and better knowledge of where to strike to cause the most damage, so she had a better impact on him. Unfortunately, even with her socks, it hurt her hand to hit it.

"Try transforming parts of your body to a scythe," she said, hoping with all her heart that it would work. "Maybe you can then cut through him?"

He didn't say anything, but cooperated anyway. Sadly, it didn't work out, and Soul ended up having to wrench his arm away from the Kishin's torso (which healed up immediately after his hand was free) as Maka was forced to distract it again. The entire situation would have been hilarious if they weren't terrified, exhausted and fighting for their lives.

Maka was beginning to think that she'd have to suck it up and use Soul after all, but a welcome distraction appeared. A blonde girl dropped from the sky and gave a resounding kick to Jack's head. As the Kishin went stumbling back, Death the Kid came into view.

"Kid- we-"

"Later, Maka," he snapped. "Soul, scythe form."

Having never seen Kid so angry with them before, Soul meekly obliged. Kid took him up with apparent ease (Maka whimpered), and charged at Jack the Ripper, just as it pushed Patty out of the way.

Maka nearly shouted out a warning that this Kishin was different, but before she could do that, Kid swung the scythe, cut off the Jack's arm, and then separated its head from its body. Immediately, it disintegrated, but unlike all the previous times where Maka fought Kishins, there was no telltale red soul for anyone to eat.

How had Kid killed it so easily? Was Maka really losing her touch at the one thing she considered herself good at? Blinking back tears, she tried to put on a steely face as Kid began to menacingly walk towards her.

"What were you two thinking?" he asked, in barely held back rage. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is, facing these Kishins with having so little information about them?"

Anger flared up in Maka, and before she could rationalize anything, she yelled back. "And whose fault is it that we don't know anything?"

"SHUT UP!" Patty yelled. "Both of you, _really_!"

The two meisters were stunned into silence. Soul tried to sink into the ground and not be noticed, but alas, his wishes weren't fulfilled, as Kid rounded on him.

"Maka, I can understand, but _you_? You're a death scythe, and you weren't supposed to go poking around after the meeting! I told you specifically not to!"

"He did?" Maka asked, confused. After a small explanation, she got that Kid had held back Soul after the meeting and told him not to take Maka _anywhere_. Why? Well, they sort of knew now.

"What happened to you hands, Maka?" Patty asked suddenly, catching sight of them and effectively interrupting Kid lecturing Soul. Maka looked down to, only to be met with a gory sight. Along with being burnt, there were various bloody and dirty cuts adorning the surface. She resolved to never forget her gloves again- how did people fight without them?

"The same thing that happened over a year ago with us, BlackStar and Tsubaki when we were fighting Free on the bridge. I can't wield Soul anymore without getting burnt."

"Impossible," Patty looked deathly serious for the first time Maka knew. "You guys haven't been through anything that would affect your wavelengths."

"Yes, what have you done?" Kid asked, curiosity overcoming him at last. That, and he had an idea about what could have happened, which he desperately hoped wasn't true.

"When Soul and I tried to attack the Kishin for the first time, we couldn't do any damage how much we tried. Witch Hunter failed, and when we tried Genie Hunter…"

Kid groaned; it was just as he feared.

"There is something else that you all need to know," he said quietly, interrupted Patty attempting to bandage Maka. "There's a reason I've been using different death scythes who I have low compatibility with, and using Liz and Patty separately. It wasn't just because I wasn't prepared to reveal the truth. Patty, do you remember the time when we took down the first Kishin with Liz? The minor one?"

"Oh yeah," the blonde girl said. "It was going fine, until you decided to stop using me and finish the whole thing off with only Liz."

"There was a reason for that," Kid said. Patty (and Liz) had been upset with that move, and he was only able to play it off by telling him that he would have better aim with only one gun and then distracting Patty with something else later. "When we all fought together, I could feel our soul wavelengths clashing. It was definitely got to do with the moon, and maybe the fact that we were fighting a revived Kishin."

"Knew it," Soul muttered. Maka stepped on his foot to shut him up. The only upside of her injury (to him) was that she couldn't Maka Chop him at the moment.

"My theory is that if an official weapon-meister partner or group, like Maka and Soul try to fight a revived Kishin under the concentrated moonlight, then the light begins to interfere with how their soul wavelengths try to 'intersect' with each other. The thing is, I don't know if it's permanent."

Oh no," Maka threw aside the bandages. "Soul, transform. Now."

"I don't think it's a good idea-"

"NOW."

He did, but as soon as the scythe handle touched her hands, she gasped and dropped him. There were fresh burns on her hands.

"This doesn't mean it's permanent," Kid tried to convince her (and himself). "Maka, give it time."

"How long is this going to last?" both meister and weapon had identical looks of horror on their faces.

"We'll try something out," Soul said, "like that weird therapy Stein gave us the first time."

"Well, we better try something," Maka said, clenching her fists and shaking. "I'm not going to stay like this forever."

.

.

 **How'd you like it?**

 **So Maka and Soul have problems! I promise, I'll reveal what** ** _that_** **incident was in the later part of the story. And Liz won't stay mad forever. And Chrona will definitely play a major part in this story. I promise that.**

 **The bit with the Soul Eater NOT characters was the hardest to write, and I'm still not entirely sure about it. I really want to make them a part of the story, since Clay and Akane seem interesting, and a team of two meisters and one weapon has so much potential. They might be a bit OOC, as it has been around three years since the NOT events in the prequel took place, and the characters have no doubt gone through some character development.**

 **As for the ships, I've decided that there'll be some romance, but it won't be the major part of this story. I don't know which ones though- there's already Stein x Marie, but I was thinking of Soul x Maka and Kim x Jackie as well, and maybe something happening between the NOT characters. Although they aren't really in the NOT class anymore. Hehe.**

 **Anyway, review to let me know what you think. As I said earlier, unless you haven't signed in, I'll reply to reviews.**

 **Thank you to all those wonderful people who reviewed, favorited and followed. It means a lot to me!**

 **-SpiderLover :D**


	3. Chapter 3

"They did _what_?" Jackie asked in disbelief, as Kim groaned in frustration.

"Believe it," said Kid. "They went to fight the Kishins themselves."

"Well, I hope they understand how irresponsible they are," Marie said, in her best threatening voice. "Losing their ability now is a huge hindrance to our plans."

Kid had called a meeting the very next day after Soul and Maka's disturbing news. Unfortunately (or fortunately for Ox who was nursing a migraine), BlackStar had not bothered to show up. Tsubaki didn't know where he went either, turning up on time and expressing surprise at his absence. Frankly, it was too much work to try and find him, so they continued the meeting anyway.

"So we shouldn't fight the revived Kishins with our partners," Kilik summarized. "How do we fight them then?"

"Honestly, it's a no win situation," Spirit sighed. "You either don't land any blows at all and lose compatibility with your partner, have to fight with you bare hands, or use a weapon you can't handle."

"I guess we should all start training with each other," Tsubaki said. "If we want to be able to fight the revived, we should be good at it."

"On the contrary, Tsubaki," Kid said. "We shouldn't train at all."

"What's your logic for that?" asked Nygus-sensei.

"I've been switching up my weapons combination," Kid continued. "If you look at the log of resurrected Kishin fights, I've never used the same weapon twice in a row at all. If it were that easy, I'd have never used Soul, Spirit or even Marie, but I think that if you get used to the weapon too much, you lose compatibility with them too."

"Is that why you never had the one month training session with Soul?" asked Sid-sensei. He had found it odd a few months ago, but was now seeing why Kid did what he did.

"Yes," replied Kid. "But there are more problems. I can't keep doing this for much longer. I'm already losing compatibility with the weapons I normally use, and I don't know if it's irreversible. If more Kishins come back, you all will have to fight them."

"This situation is a disaster," Harvar said. "Kid, essentially, what you're asking us to do is to grope around in the dark. The meisters have to use weapons for the first time while trying to kill deadly Kishins?"

"That's not all," Kim added. "The DWMA has killed some really powerful enemies in the past, including witches. This is a total game of chance- who knows if we'll be fighting a low level Kishin or a powerful witch like Arachne?"

"And losing compatibility with death scythes?" Spirit groaned. "Kid, this is terrible. The only one left who we can get hold of is Azusa. And she's on a secret mission now!"

"Hold on," Marie said soothingly, waving her hands in a calming gesture. "Maybe our situation isn't so bad. Kid, do the Kishins have a decrease in ability after being revived?"

This time it was Liz who spoke up. "Not really," she glared at Kid as though that was somehow his fault. "Even though _some people_ here refuse to say anything, it's pretty easy to tell that there is no difference."

Ignoring this jibe at him, Kid added on. "If it makes the situation any better, they can't seem to communicate with humans anymore."

"Helpful," Liz muttered and then continued to not look at Kid.

"Even still," Marie said a little more sharply this time, annoyed that her theory was false, "It's one Kishin a night at the most. If we switch it around enough, we can handle it until a permanent solution is formed."

"It's not just that, sensei," Jackie said. "If we add in the whole witch situation, our forces will be spread too thin. Besides, wasn't there a talk about getting Crona back from the moon?"

"Oh yeah, Crona," Kilik recounted their times with the ever-nervous black blood child. "We have to get him down soon."

"I don't want to say this," Kid said waveringly. "But we can't focus on Chrona right now."

"What? No!" Tsubaki said. Even Sid and Nygus looked appalled with the decision.

"Kid, are you serious?" asked Patty.

"I don't like it any more than you do," Kid argued. "But between the witches and the Kishins, we already have enough problems to deal with for now. As it is, we're short on forces."

"He has a point there," Ox spoke up. "After the Battle on the Moon, we lost a lot of soldiers and Granny," he said, cuing a small pang of silent sadness in remembrance of their strong, eccentric meister receptionist. "And we can't rely on Clay, Akane and Azusa. They and some others have their hands full."

"Wait, who're they with?" asked Kilik.

"I think those three girls from the NOT class who defeated Shaula Gorgon some years ago," Kim said. "Fun times; remember, Jakie?"

"Focus," Sid snapped.

"This is stupid," Liz said contemptuously. "Crona is stuck on the moon, drowning in his own blood and who even knows where Ragnarok is right now. And he's trapped freaking _Asura_ , who may even be behind this mess in the first place. It's dumb, leaving him alone."

Kid looked uncertain, but Spirit spoke up.

"No one is looking for Crona. Not yet," he said. "Not even you, Kid."

Jackie frowned. "Are you even allowed to give him orders?"

"I can't," Spirit admitted. "But Kid, do you trust me enough to give me this leeway?"

Kid hesitated. When it came to relationship commitments, Sprit Albarn was the very definition of untrustworthy. But from what he observed over the years with the previous Shinigami and now himself, Spirit was unfailingly loyal, and always made himself useful, refusing to mess up his job there. So Kid decided to let Spirit take control for once. Dumb move? Maybe. But Kid had enough to do on his own.

"For now, yes," Kid said. "But if our situation gets much worse, I will be taking measures to investigate the moon."

"We have significantly more weapons than meisters," Nygus said. It was true; in their group, there were eight meisters and eleven weapons.

"Are we counting Liz and Patty as one weapon?" Harvar asked.

Liz gave him a withering look. "We are not," she said haughtily. "And we aren't counting Fire and Thunder as the same weapon either."

"Can we, though?" asked Kilik. "They get anxiety if separated." Kid nodded. After all, the weapons were still children. It was bad enough that they were caught up in this mess in the first place, so it would be a good move to make sure they were together.

"I don't know if I'll be able to be counted as an available weapon for much longer," Marie confessed regretfully. "Stein and I have agreed that I won't be fighting in any intensive battles after the seventh month."

"That's not a problem, Marie," Sid said soothingly, glaring around the room as if daring them to disagree. No one did. "Your baby should take priority."

"Can Soul and Maka even fight anymore?" asked Kim incredulously. "Clearly they can't with each other for a while, but can they use different meisters and weapons?"

"I think so," Kid thought. "I doubt that their situation is that bad."

"Where are they anyway?" wondered Ox. "You'd think Maka would be the most active member of discussion here."

"They're trying to fix things with Stein-sensei," Harvar said. "They're trying to get their soul compatibility back."

.

.

"You two have gotten yourselves into a real mess this time," Stein said disapprovingly, eyeing the sheepish duo.

"Can we try that weird therapy like last time, sensei?" asked Soul, cutting to the chase.

"It won't be as effective, as last time," Stein rubbed his chin. "In fact, I'm more certain that it wouldn't have any effect. Now that you both have gone through it before, you mill be immune to it now."

"Isn't it worth a shot?" asked Maka tentatively.

"I doubt it," Stein said. "Last time, you wanted to strengthen your compatibility. This time, you need to fix it; it's not the same scenario."

The two shuffled around guiltily, remembering their previous stupidity, or so Stein hoped. More likely or not, they were digging up painful memories and only partially resolved conflicts, which wouldn't benefit them at all. Stein decided to backtrack instead.

"Well, this is complete madness," he loved that word, "but I'll look over what I have. Maybe you'll both end up with screws in your head."

"I hope not," Soul muttered. He and Maka quietly exited the room as Stein got to work. Now this was an interesting case indeed…

.

.

"Where were you?" Tsubaki asked hollowly, as BlackStar slipped into his seat. It was the middle of Sid-sensei's lecture (said teacher was muttering something about a date, which Tsubaki really didn't want to know about), which made his appearance even more surprising, as the young 'assassin' rarely came to classes anymore. Angela wasn't with him, so that was an even bigger surprise. "What made you come to classes all of a sudden?"

"I dunno," he said. "Guess I just felt like it. Kim said she and Jackie would watch Angela for the day, so I didn't have anything better to do."

"How about training?"

"Didn't feel like it."

This was unlike him. Normally, when asked about training, BlackStar would begin a long (and loud) lecture about what he did, how long he did what he did and who was in the gym that day, thus losing around fifty percent of his audience. Later, his monologue would later stem to how many people he fought while training (usually it was poor Hero or some other lone meister); at least forty more percent would have given up by then. And finally, he'd talk about how strong he was and how much stronger he would be. Usually, only Tsubaki had the patience to stick around for that bit. And monologues aside, BlackStar _never_ missed out on training.

"Well, you could have come to the meeting we had."

"Jackie filled me in," BlackStar said dismissively. "Apparently, Soul and Maka lost their soul compatibility."

"They did," Tsubaki clarified. Then, after the lack of BlackStar's reactions, she probed a little further. "Aren't you worried? They're our friends."

"They'll get over it," BlackStar said. "Maka's not _that_ pathetic. Actually, don't tell her I said that. I'm MUCH stronger than her and you know it."

Tsubaki cracked a small smile. That was a little more like BlackStar, even though he probably shouldn't have been cracking jokes at Maka's expense. However, her feelings of hope dissipated, as she noticed a darker look in BlackStar's eyes after he mentioned the scythe master. That was… odd.

"Did you hear the bit about Crona?" she asked.

"I did," he said.

"And you're not worried about _that_?" she asked in disbelief. Despite Crona and BlackStar not being close (at all), he wasn't the type to be dismissive of his friend's well being. In fact, on the moon, BlackStar really hadn't wanted to leave Crona behind, partially because he wanted to fight Asura himself, but more so because he'd have to leave Crona alone and possibly in danger.

"Crona's still alive," BlackStar said. "And I know it. Besides, the whole bit about Asura messing with the moon is all bull anyway- I'm pretty sure than Crona is still going strong."

"Fine," Tsubaki left it. That was something they wouldn't agree on. She remembered feeling horrible after leaving Crona and Ragnarok drowning in their own blood, even though it was probably nothing on how Maka felt (she caught the meister crying behind a bush after Kid's 'coronation'). Nevertheless, she still felt bad about it and even had nightmares about them. When combined with Asura, Masamune and Mifune, they made for many sleepless nights.

"They counted you as an available meister, you know?" she said, finally looking at him. "Should I tell them you're busy? Since you're, you know, _training_?" she poured as much contempt as she could into that word.

BlackStar didn't catch it (as usual). His face lit up instead. "Are you kidding?" he ejaculated. "I'm always up for a fight! When do we start?"

" _We_ ," Tsubaki corrected, although slightly relieved that he didn't get her jibe, "will not be doing anything together. Apparently, compatible weapon-meister teams are in danger fighting alone. I think Soul and Maka proved that."

"Ugh," said BlackStar. "I'll have to use _Harvar and Jackie_? They're such straight-laces!" he shuddered. "This is gonna suck."

Oh it would. While Tsubaki normally would jump at every chance to protect the DWMA and Death City, she now felt that her safely blanket of a reliable team had been snatched from her and she was now left, hanging by a thin rope of survival over an abyss of doom. And what was worse, the abyss contained not only the unknown (which would be bad enough on its own), but also the demons of her past.

So Tsubaki began to worry. Again.

.

.

"We're starting to kill Kishins tonight," Kid said. "Ox, Jacqueline, are you sure you're up for this?"

"Positive," Ox said, though looking a bit ashen. "This is the best combination for us. Besides, Jaqueline here can fly away if necessary, and set the Kishin on fire."

"Let's hope it wont be necessary," Kid remarked. "However foolproof our backup methods are in this case, we can't rely on flying and setting things on fire for the other pairs. Let's hope that this goes well."

"It's a pity bringing backup is dangerous," Jackie remarked. "We really could use some right now." She shot Kid a look. She hadn't been happy after he told her that only weapons and meisters could fight the revived Kishins, and bringing lone soldiers was nothing more than a bloodbath. According to Kid, this had been found out after an unsuccessful attempt to defeat a Kishin, where no weapons were brought along. Originally, Kid thought he'd use his new Shinigami powers, but it didn't work. All the soldiers that were with him were wounded, or had to retreat until Kid found a random weapon and hastily killed the Kishin before it destroyed any more stalls in Vietnam.

"Yes, it is a pity," Kid returned the look as well. "Anyway, thankfully the area of concentration is somewhat near to Death City," he paused. "It's in Quebec."

The two groaned. It was no picnic, fighting in the cold, and while Jackie could warm up the place, it would simply use more of her energy. However, there was really nothing Kid could do, so he was lucky that he chose the two people in the Spartoi who were least likely to complain about this later. But this came to haunt him again, as Spirit and Marie constantly went on for two hours that day asking him why they couldn't just go with Sid instead at the beginning. Theoretically, it would have been a great idea, but years of training together had made all the teachers quite compatible with each other. Besides, if the mission did go south, Oz and Jackie could be counted on to scrupulously hide the details. But Kid had gotten so annoyed that after two hours, eight minutes and nine seconds of questioning, he declared that he was getting late for a date and ran out the room. Now, he was hiding from the faculty, and Patty, who somehow got to know about the 'news'.

"You're flight leaves in around two hours," he went on. "Is there anything you want to take?"

"We packed," Jacqueline said. "We actually got a couple more weapons, just in case something else happens. So far, we have a couple knives and weak grenades. Is there anything else we need?"

"I don't think so," Kid said. "But grenades? They are not going to be happy at the airport."

"We were hoping you would give us a permit," Ox said. "After all, we do need to have our own backup."

"I'll do it," Kid said, making a mental note to send the airport a letter about the situation. "Wait- Ox what are you holding?"

"Brass knuckles."

"Oh."

After a little more talk about accommodation and the return flight, if they had a need for that (they felt queasy thinking about the alternative), Harvar and Kim were allowed in to say their goodbyes and good-lucks.

"I really don't think this is safe," Kim said. "Are you sure I can't come with you?"

"It's risky," Harvar said. "You must have forgotten that you and Jacqueline here are partners." Ah. Harvar hadn't been exactly warm towards Kim and Jackie after the whole incident with the Morality Manipulative Machine in Arachnophobia.

"I'm a witch," Kim said, this time turning towards Kid. "Maybe this won't have an effect on my soul?"

Kid shook his head. "Jacqueline is a human, so she'll definitely be impacted. Besides, it's too risky. If anyone who's targeting witches is there, you'll be in danger."

Kim groaned. They had almost forgotten about that. Wow, she really hadn't been putting a lot of work into the case since Azusa took over. She wasn't sure if it bothered her or not. Now, all that was missing was a sappy declaration of love and goodbye that Ox was going to spring on her-

"Goodbye, Kim, Harvar, Kid," Ox said. "Come on, Jacqueline. We don't want to miss our flight."

And with a friendly wave, they were out the door. Kid, Kim and even Harvar stared. Kim was dumbfounded, but also relieved. Maybe he was actually over her.

.

.

The plane ride was awkward to say the least. While part of the same team, Ox and Jackie barely interacted individually, without Kilik being there to break the ice. They were both reserved people at heart, and didn't often make attempts to reach out of their comfort zone in terms of socializing. Not to mention that they had high levels of intellect as well, but other than that, Ox was horrified when he realized that the only other thing they had in common was… Kim.

Ox knew that Jacqueline liked Kim a couple of days after the battle on the moon, Clay and Akane had stuck around to support Kid (and keep watch for any witch who decided that they weren't going to support the alliance with the DWMA), so he had overheard them gossiping with Sid-sensei. He normally wouldn't have eavesdropped, but after hearing Kim's name being thrown around, he decided to listen. Apparently, Tsugumi Harudori, who Ox remembered giving some money to after Kim took hers, had let it slip to Akane that Jacqueline had a crush on Kim a couple of years ago. Apparently, the meister-weapon duo wanted to know if it was still true, to which Sid replied that he didn't know. Spirit had overheard them too, and after he joined in, the conversation turned rather unsavory, prompting Ox to get out of there as soon as possible.

After some recollecting of Jacqueline's behavior with Harvar's help- he took it upon himself to continuously analyze her behavior after the Arachnophobia incident- and meticulous analysis, he concluded that Jackie still liked Kim. And Ox was rarely wrong when it came to Kim, except for when he was for a brief period where he determinedly ignored Harvar and was convinced that she liked him back.

That was also why Ox decided that he would stop liking Kim six months ago. She and Jacqueline shared a closer bond, and he also did some rethinking about whether or not he loved her as much as he thought he did. He came to the conclusion that he didn't really anymore- like most of the other boys, when Kim first joined, he was blown away by her looks. However after she descended into her delinquent behavior, he may have actually had genuine feelings for her, but she clearly didn't feel the same way back. Instead, it was Jacqueline who lifted her out of her funk and was the first to know her secrets. Ox couldn't do that. True, he wasn't a weapon so he couldn't partner up with Kim, but he could have taken an effort to help her outright, instead of trying to cover up for her actions behind her back. Above all, they were childish. Ox wasn't naïve enough to believe he could understand love at his age. No, it was infatuation and camaraderie which had fooled him. At least he could look back on his actions and learn from them now. Yes, it would sting a bit, but he could deal with it.

Besides, it didn't matter what he felt now. He and Harvar were both fairly certain that Kim liked Jacqueline back (or at least liked girls). So what else could he do but support the relationship?

"Hey, Ox? The plane is landing. We have to leave the flight soon," she said, interrupting his thoughts. After looking outside the window, he realized that they had barely begun their descent, but the girl was already ready to sprint off the plane. "I thought you'd want to gel your 'pillars' or whatnot."

How could he forget? After running his hands near his ears, he was relieved to see that his pillars were still somewhat stiff, but did need some gelling to last the night. He rummaged through his bag, only to find that-

"No, no, no! I don't have the hair gel!"

"Crisis," Jacqueline quipped sarcastically. After seeing his distraught expression, she softened a little. "I'm sure your hair will last until after the battle," when that didn't work, she said, "Quebec will have places that sell hair gel!"

That got him out of his sadness. "We will have to wait until after the battle. Are you nervous?"

She looked a little surprised that he would ask that, but answered him. "Not at all. I do wish I could fight with Kim, but I'm glad that it's you under these circumstances."

Ox hadn't expected that. For a long time, he had been under the impression that Jacqueline hated him due to his constant shows of affection for her meister. "Why's that?"

"Kilik and BlackStar are too impulsive. They wouldn't follow any plan, and it would be difficult to fight with them, and I don't really know Stein-sensei and Sid-sensei out of class, so it would be odd to fight alongside them. Kid's a decent person, but I have a feeling that Liz isn't comfortable with him using other weapons, so I don't want to be caught in the middle."

"I guess she'd be insecure about it," Ox said doubtfully. From what he had known of her, Liz had a laid back attitude, so her behavior now was rather unnatural. Maybe seeing her meister not share much information with her bothered her. "What about Maka? She's down to earth."

Jacqueline frowned. "I don't know Maka too well," she said. "She's levelheaded, yes, but she also puts too much of herself into battle, if you know what I mean," he didn't understand, so she went on. "Maka refuses to understand the meaning of retreat- I don't even know how they got her to leave Crona on the moon. If she can't back down, it's dangerous for her to wield a weapon against an unknown enemy."

"Especially after the stunt she and Soul played," Ox shook his head. He thought they would be smarter than that. "But you do realize that you have to work with them sooner or later, right?"

"Don't remind me," she said, effectively ending the conversation as the plane landed. The next few hours was finding the site of moon concentration (thankfully it was in a secluded place so there was a lower chance of bystanders being in danger) and scoping out the area. The two didn't dare to do some last minute training or getting used to each other, as they didn't want to take their chances of losing any compatibility. _Don't try to perform soul resonances,_ Kid had warned them. They didn't have to worry about that bit.

Before they knew it, the sun had fallen, and the black moon took its place. Like every other night, Ox tried to look for any sign of Crona, but didn't see anything. His Soul Perception skills weren't very fine-tuned, so he couldn't sense the meister's soul. The eye of the moon glowed, and a shimmery light shone on the damp snow, causing it to sparkle in a way that could be considered beautiful, if they didn't know that a Kishin would emerge from there.

Something was wrong. They waited for one hour. The ground showed no signs of breaking, and the moon continued to calmly shine on the snow.

"Maybe nothing's coming today?" Jacqueline said.

"Kid says that something happens every night," Ox said. "Maybe we have to-"

Something slammed into the back of his head, and he briefly saw a red flash before his face hit the snow. He instinctively kicked whatever was on top of him and tried to stand up, the snow and the throbbing pain in his head making it difficult to do so. The sound of crackling filled the air, so he knew that Jacqueline had unleashed her fire, and was trying to do some damage to the Kishin, who he didn't recognize.

She transformed into her weapon form, and he grabbed her and took a few steps back. The Kishin recoiled, but began to roll around the snow to soothe the burns.

"Well, that's the Kishin," she said crisply. "Ox, your head is bleeding."

So that's what was dripping down his neck. He shifted Jacqueline in his hands, trying to find a stance that made him comfortable. She was heavier than Harvar, and her metal felt unusual in his hands. Ox supposed that he was lucky that he was able to lift her at all.

"Let's kill him," he said, leaping forward and jabbing at the Kishin, like he did with Harvar in his spear form. His strokes were clumsy, but made contact. Jacqueline's fire had a good reach as well, so they did do some damage to it. Bit by bit, they weakened the Kishin.

Then the situation got worse. The Kishin, in a sudden burst of odd strength, smacked Jacqueline out of Ox's hands, sending her tumbling over the snow.

"Jacqueline!" he yelled, getting up and making his way to her, but stumbling in the soft and partly melted snow, head throbbing painfully. She didn't respond, but begin to brandish her flames in front of the Kishin, in hope to distract it as Ox figured out another solution. he grabbed a hunting knife from his pocket (that bore a striking resemblance to Nygus-sensei in weapon form) and drove it through the Kishin's chest, hoping that it would kill it. It didn't, but it distracted the thing enough for Jacqueline to transform, and him to drive the fire part of the weapon through the Kishin's head.

It disintegrated, not leaving a soul behind, which was apparently normal. For the next two hours, Jacqueline bandaged Ox's head, and they later found the hotel they were supposed to stay in. _For their first time fighting a Kishin under those circumstances_ , thought Ox, _they weren't too bad at all._

.

.

"Jackie and Ox just reported," Kilik said, running into the room. "They say that the mission went by without a hitch, although Ox got hit in the head or something."

"Is he alright?" asked Harvar immediately.

"He's fine," Kilik said. "Jackie patched him up."

"Thank goodness," Kim flopped back on the sofa, putting her feet up, much to Harvar's chagrin. "I was worried about them."

"They're Ox and Jackie, what's there to be worried about?" Kilik said dismissively. "Although…"

"What happened," Harvar deadpanned, assuming that Kilik did something stupid. Honestly, it wasn't off the mark. And when he teamed up with BlackStar and Patty Thompson to pull a prank, Harvar was fairly certain that everyone's IQ dropped by at least twenty points.

"I didn't do anything," Kilik looked insulted. "But you know how Kid, Maka and Soul kept saying that the Kishins emerge from the ground?"

"Yeah," Kim said, sitting up again and grabbing Fire and Thunder in her arms. "Did something else happen?"

"The Kishin ambushed them from behind," Kilik said. "That's how Ox hurt his head."

"That's… weird," Kim frowned. "Does Kid or Sid-sensei know yet?"

"Jackie is telling them as we speak," Kilik said. "She said something about wanting to get off the phone because I answered it and not one of you…"

"Yeah, she hates you," Kim said, as Harvar may or may not have choked back a laugh.

"Does not!" Kilik said. "I'll text her."

"Fine," Kim said. "Your funeral."

"Dear Jackie…" Kilik said as he texted the words. "Gotta be super polite. Do… you… hate me? Haha eat your words, Kim. She'll be telling me how much she worships me, her team leader and mentor- oh she texted back. Ahhh…" he put the phone down.

"Give me that," Harvar said, snatching the phone. "It's says: Kilik, are you alright? Yes, I do."

The group laughed for a few seconds, even Fire and Thunder who weren't exactly sure of what was going on.

"Real talk though," Kim said, after the laughter died down. "I think Ox and Jackie were really lucky."

"They were," Harvar clarified. "According to Kid, he sent the pair of them purposefully. They have similar personalities and stay levelheaded in battle."

"Right," Kilik said. "Ugh, think of all the weird partnerships we'll have to do. Imagine me wielding-"

"You're a _utility_ _meister_ ; it won't be so bad for you," interjected Harvar. "After all, you were able to wield Liz and Patty, whose soul wavelengths often aren't compatible with many others.

"That's true," said Kim. "Ugh, all these partnerships are going to do my head in. Imagine me using Fire and Thunder."

Kilik grimaced. "For their sake, I hope not," he said, dodging Harvar's jacket, thrown by Kim. "It's the truth. They're still kids, and I don't really want them to experience soul incompatibility under these circumstances. It could be really harmful," Kim nodded in agreement. She had a soft spot for the twins, and didn't want them to be put in any danger. Hopefully Kid knew that too, and gave them some type of leniency.

"Kilik has quite the extensive vocabulary," Harvar said snarkily, dodging his own jacket, curtosy of Kilik. "Oh dear. Imagine me being wielded by _BlackStar_."

There was a collective groan at that. "I don't think Kid's going to do that anytime soon," Kim said.

"I'm worried about BlackStar, though," Kilik said, taking Fire from Kim. The room fell silent again. "Tsubaki tells me that he's been disappearing for hours lately."

"Tsubaki told you?" that was odd. They barely talked.

"She thought he'd be with me," Kilik said. "He wasn't. According to Soul, the whole Mifune and Angela thing messed him up pretty bad."

"Yeah Jackie told me that Soul and Tsubaki are having these arguments about what to do with him during the weapons only classes," Kim said. "I didn't think it was _that_ bad."

"Hm," the team sat in silence for the next few hours, contemplating their future and waiting for their friends.

.

.

 **How'd you like it?**

 **Sorry this chapter wasn't as 'angsty' as before. The next chapter will be full of it.**

 **'Team Kilik' is underrated. Ox and Jackie's friendship is something I've wanted to see for a long time, and I hope I made it seem relatable and do it some justice. Also, we need more Kilik and Kim friendship. I have a feeling that he annoys her to no end, but they have a strong companionship.**

 **Spirit has a solid reason to not get Crona down from the moon immediately. It will be revealed later.**

 **To all of you who ship Ox and Kim, I'm sorry, but I don't really. While I do like both their characters, I don't really think that they'd last long in a relationship. I know that the whole Kim x Jackie romantic relationship was only explored in Soul Eater NOT, but I felt that they would have a better chance of being together that Ox and Kim, since it was Jackie who brought Kim out of her funk. Besides, I think seeing some LGBTQ+ characters in Soul Eater would be good.**

 **Overall, the main point of the story isn't romance. It doesn't matter who gets together with whom; the overall plot line will still stay the same.**

 **As always, thank you to those amazing people who reviewed, favorited and followed. It really means a lot to me.**

 **-SpiderLover 3**


	4. Chapter 4

"Ok, Spirit. Spill," Marie stormed into his office, practically exuding an aura of rage, which was out of character for her. Spirit Albarn nearly fell off his chair and gulped, having flashbacks back to a time when he was seventeen, and his eighteen year old wife (it was a hasty shotgun wedding) was six months pregnant with Maka. It had been an utter nightmare, with her being only slightly less terrifying than Stein in surgeon mode, and the experience had scarred him so much that it left him with an unhealthy fear of pregnant women. Behind Marie hovered a concerned looking Stein, along with the nervous meister-weapon duo, Sid and Nygus.

"Did I do something?" he asked, trying to play dumb. Usually, it worked on her. This time it didn't; it only seemed to intensify the blonde's rage.

"Ordering Kid to abandon Crona on the moon? _Really_ , Spirit? I knew you were heartless, but this is a whole new level."

Ok. There were _several_ things wrong with that statement. Spirit climbed out of his chair. "First of all, Marie, I didn't order Kid to do anything. In fact, I can't. I requested him to trust me, and he did, like any sensible Shinigami would. And second, I'm not _heartless_. Have you seen me with Maka- and oh dear god you're crying."

It was true. She was. Stein awkwardly began to shuffle around, as if torn about whether to comfort her physically, hand her a tissue, or glare at Spirit. In the end, he settled for all three, patting her shoulder and offering her a tissue awkwardly while glowering at the redheaded death scythe.

"All other _emotional aspects_ aside," Nygus said smoothly, sparing Marie a slightly frustrated look at her state (Mira Nygus had never been one for letting feelings dictate anything), "I feel like we do deserve an explanation of why we must leave Crona alone for now. After all, we have been colleagues for years." Behind her, Sid nodded affirmatively.

Spirit sighed. "I was planning to," he said. "Look, Marie. We're not abandoning Crona. But we have to be careful about everything."

"How so?" asked Sid.

"Just nearly a year ago, the Spartoi had orders under Shinigami to assassinate Crona and Ragnarok. Doesn't that imply that Crona's dangerous? Besides, we offered forgiveness, and the kid left the DWMA to side with Medusa and her cronies again."

Stein tensed at the mention of Medusa. Spirit knew that the mad scientist and the witch (who he _hated_ , by the way) had some complicated sexual tension/on again off again romantic feelings in the past. "The assassination plan was a terrible idea and you know it, Spirit. Besides, Crona's 'betrayal' was a result of Medusa's manipulation and not a disregard of the DWMA's offer of amnesty."

"Crona has no sense of morality," Spirit blurted out. Behind Stein and Marie, Sid and Nygus cringed, and too late, he realized that he could have worded it differently. "I'm not against the kid- it was Medusa's fault entirely. I'm just saying that the black blood child is dangerous. Soul Evans told me that Crona told Maka about the morality thing."

"That's disturbing," Sid said. "But I wasn't the kind of guy to leave people behind when I was alive. Crona is unstable, but it doesn't mean that we should leave the child on the moon with a deadly Kishin."

"That's the thing," Nygus's face contorted in horror when the realization dawned on her. "Crona and Asura have gotten BREW with them under the black blood as well."

"Exactly," Spirit said. The entire room was silent; Marie even stopped crying. BREW was Eibon's greatest creation, which had so much power that no one was sure what the extent of its powers were, so in the wrong hands (aka Asura's), it could be extremely dangerous indeed. And now, on the moon was Asura with full possible access to it, only being held back by blood, and a child who had no control over the blood anymore. Overall, it was almost guaranteed that Asura would somehow use the instrument to his advantage.

"This is horrible," Marie sniffed. "No wonder you didn't want anyone on the moon."

"I'm curious," Nygus quipped again. "If Asura had full access to BREW, why hasn't he used it yet?"

The group was silent for a minute. Then Sid spoke up hesitantly. "The black blood induces insanity, at least in Crona, Maka, and Soul's cases. My guess is that Asura is becoming increasingly insane, and is simply unable to use it."

"That makes a lot of sense," Nygus nodded. "It explains why everything's been relatively peaceful for half a year."

"That being said," Stein's brow furrowed and his glasses glinted terrifyingly. "We can not afford to be complacent. We must somehow get Crona and BREW back."

"We're not sending the Spartoi," Spirit said immediately. Even though his daughter had faced some messed up monsters, there was no way he was sending her there, especially when most of the information they had was mere speculation. The entire group nodded in assent.

"How about Kid?" Sid asked. The room went silent again.

"I think," Marie finally said, "that even though it violates our job, we shouldn't tell Kid anything. Even though he is the Shinigami, there is still a lot that he doesn't and shouldn't know yet. Let's keep it that way."

"He became Shinigami too soon," Nygus mused. "Even though he is who he is, he's still a child."

"I disagree," Stein said. "All the lines of sanzu connected, which proves he is ready to be the new Shinigami."

"Let's forget whether Kid is ready or not to handle his position," Spirit interrupted what was sure to be an argument (read fight) between Stein and Nygus, "and let's research about BREW."

.

.

"Remind me again," Anastasia Yngling/ Anya Hepburn said through gritted teeth as she followed Clay, "exactly why I'm partnered with you?"

"We've been over this six times," he replied, steadily losing his patience. "Akane's soul perception says that you have a more adaptable wavelength than Tatane- which I honestly find surprising-" she whacked him on the arm for that- " _and_ you've had training with swords before some time ago, so she's with Harudori, and you're with me. But you _haven't_ used rifles before, so you _can't_ pair up with Azusa, Yngling."

"Don't call me that," she said curtly. "We've been over that too. I left Anastasia Yngling behind years ago."

"Sorry, bad habit," he murmured.

"Besides," she said, "what I want to know is why Akane and Azusa are tasked with interviewing witnesses of Free's last attack, Tsugumi and Meme are guarding our car and equipment, and why we are _sitting in a sewer?_ "

Anya and Clay were indeed wading through a sewer underground, following up on their latest anonymous tip. To add insult to the injury, it was the most bizarre one yet, and the two were convinced that the lead was bogus. Unfortunately, Azusa, who was team leader, hadn't seen eye to eye with them on that one, and the rest of the team backed her up, so they were in the sewers anyway.

"Look, Akane's manipulative!" Clay said in defense. "I got tricked!"

"No, you're a fool!" Anya said with all the severity of a queen.

"And you're insufferable," Clay said, as he pushed his way through something uncomfortably solid and brown. After a few minutes of him cursing when he found out what exactly he walked through, the pair walked in silence for about quarter an hour.

"Clay, did you switch on our radio?" Anya asked.

"Yep."

"Then why isn't Tsugumi answering when I try to speak?"

"Wait, what? Maybe she switched off her radio?"

"That was what I thought, but I seem to be unable to contact Azusa as well. She would never switch off a radio during a mission."

"Is it out of range?"

"It says it is, but according to the map we still have plenty of time to go before we do get out of range."

"Huh," Clay grabbed it and wrenched the back open. After a little poking around, he concluded that the interiors were functioning normally. So what happened to it?

Something horrible occurred to Anya. "Clay, listen."

He did, only to be met with sloshing of mucky water, which seemed much softer than usual, like there was nothing flowing into the sewer. "I can't hear anything."

"But twenty minutes ago we could," she whispered, which was true. Even though they were rather deep in the ground, they could hear loud conversations (albeit muffled) on the street above, and could even hear the sounds of car tires clunking over manhole covers.

"Did we get lost somehow?"

"We haven't," said Anya. "We followed the map, and we're around a few hundred meters away from where the werewolf was reported to be last."

"That's… strange," said Clay. "It's like we've been cut off from the outside completely."

Anya's face drained of its color, and she just stood in her place. "His arithmetic magic."

That was enough for Clay to understand exactly what was happening. "Oh no."

Around two years ago, the Shinigami (not Kid- the original) had arranged for a dance for the entire DWMA to celebrate the anniversary of its opening, which Anya had attended and Clay had not. It was a special one, as the Shinigami had taken it upon himself to show up in person, making it the first time he left his rooms in many years. Unfortunately, the witch Medusa (who was acting as the school nurse to gather information about the Kishin Asura) had used this to her advantage, and using Free's arithmetic magic, they (and the witches Erica and the Mizune sisters) had sealed the entire school (but seven students and two teachers, not counting Medusa who had escaped ages ago) in the room. The magic was so strong that Shinigami himself wasn't able to escape.

And if Free was doing the same thing at the moment, Anya and Clay were in _big_ trouble.

"Run," Clay said, grabbing Anya's arm and talking her back the way they came. He knew it was a futile gesture, but it was better than standing around doing nothing while waiting for the werewolf to come to meet them personally. Clay cursed himself for being such an idiot. He was a trained agent, and he should have known that this entire situation was way too perfect to miss. Free had amazing tracking abilities for meisters and weapons, thus making a team assembled to track him and small as possible; the sewers were isolated and underground, so it was easy for him to seal them in; worst of all, Free was immortal- they couldn't kill him in time.

"It lasts around forty five minutes," Anya said, "and I think we spent around twenty minutes in here. Perhaps he will not find us. After all, the sewers are foul enough to mask anyone's scent," Clay desperately hoped that would be the case.

Their last hopes were shattered as faint growls were heard behind them, getting louder by the second. The two ran faster, until Clay crashed into a wall, which shimmered after his contact.

The splashes became louder. The werewolf appeared.

"DWMA scum," he chuckled, surrounding them. Clay drew a sharp breath. In the time that he knew Free as an ally of their school, he thought the man to be jovial enough with a sense of honor, though slightly ditzy and clumsy at times. Free had changed; his prison clothes were torn to shreds, hanging limply off his body, and his 'NO FUTURE' tattoo seemed to pulsate in the feeble light. Worst of all, his eyes had a jagged edge to them, as if his sanity had broken and he shattered it further. They were the eyes of a feral man, one who wasn't afraid to hurt and kill. This was the Free they faced when he was working for Medusa, or even worse. "Come to try and screw me over again, I suppose."

"You misunderstand us," Anya said, voice firmer than the three of them had expected. "The two of us have no intention nor ability to kill you. All we ask is that you come with us, and you will be provided with amnesty."

"No one's looking for a fight," Clay provided, in case Free was a more simple person. Internally, he was shaking. The plan of finding Free and then hiding and calling backup to subdue him was downright impossible, and they would certainly be killed in a fight.

The werewolf scoffed. "Amnesty? Really? No, I'm here to kill you. Your death will be a lesson to that half baked Shinigami, the foolish pink haired abomination and that senile witch leader,"

Death the Kid, Kim Deil and Maaba. Clay's insides burned at the insult, but he kept his voice cool, as he racked his brain for an escape plan.

"You don't have to do this," he said as a last-ditch effort.

In response to that, Free grinned and lunged.

.

.

"I'm glad you're back safely," Kim said.

Jackie raised her head from the dishes she was washing. The two had just finished making dinner in the dorms' communal kitchen. "Was there ever a doubt?"

Kim scrubbed the counter even harder, as if venting out her frustrations on it. "Of course not," she said, though sounding not entirely genuine, "I don't doubt your capabilities, Jackie. I don't even doubt Ox's either. It's just… this entire mission is crazy."

Jackie turned to Kim, ignoring the suds dripping down her wrists. "Kim, we are in the Spartoi. Nothing we do on missions is normal."

"I know," Kim's voice was small and forlorn; Jackie had to resist the urge to hug her right then and there, "but for everything else, I always had you as a constant. No matter what happened, we fought together. But now-" she abandoned the cloth and made a helpless gesture, "You're fighting resurrected Kishins. I'm trying to keep this whole crazy witch alliance thing together now. We're separated."

"And does this bother you?"

"Of course," Kim said, this time sounding completely truthful. "It's the worst feeling."

A myriad of emotions swirled through Jackie. Yes, she and Kim had been partnered up for two years now, and Jackie had gotten quite used to Kim and obviously valued her. In the beginning, she had been almost emotionally dependent on her meister, almost with utter devotion, and it had stung badly when Km didn't seem to feel the same way. Over the years, her feelings had toned down to a point where Jackie deeply cared for her friend, but didn't hero-worship her anymore. Jackie had changed. It hadn't occurred to her that Kim did too. Her heart flipped, but she decided to ignore it.

"Kim," Jackie said softly, too confused to think properly, "do you remember when we first partnered up? You _hated_ me."

Kim scoffed, despite her obvious pain. "I thought you were a hardass."

Jackie laughed too. "You did. You were a completely independent person at that time, who couldn't bear the thought of confiding in anyone."

"I was a scared idiot," Kim said.

Jackie shook her head. "But you functioned on your own. All I'm saying is that you're strong enough to get through what's happening."

"That's a nice thought," said Kim. "Yeah."

No one knew who hugged who first, but the two girls together sat on the counter in silence until the horizon tinged pink, and the dishcloth dried on the floor where Kim had dropped it.

.

.

"Therapy sucks," Maka said finally.

"Profanity much?" replied Soul.

"Shut up and pass me the eggs."

It was early in the morning, and though it was Maka's day to make breakfast, Soul (who was still looking for Blaire, who was still missing) had wandered into the kitchen, and the two had somehow ended up making breakfast together. Maka thought it was rather sweet of him, and then dismissed that thought from her head. This would be considered his payment for all the times he conveniently fell 'sick' on some Mondays and Thursdays (his days to cook), and left her to make breakfast instead, promising that he would make it up to her, and never doing it. But her annoyance at Soul dissipated after she realized that Stein-sensei's 'therapy' had been good for bringing them closer, returning them to their friendly state, much like before the formation of the Spartoi. It was refreshing to say the least.

"But yeah, I get what you mean," he said, chopping up a tomato with his own arm that he transformed into a scythe blade (he claimed he was conserving water for washing cutlery that way, and Maka was honestly done trying to argue with him about that). "Nothing Stein's doing works."

"Well, I hope it isn't permanent," Maka said. Normally, she would be much more distraught about it, but today was a good day, she and Tsubaki had defeated a Kishin on their own (despite never really pairing up before), and she was cooking breakfast with Soul.

"Nah, it isn't," he said nonchalantly. "Can't you feel it? Our soul wavelengths are coming together again slowly."

Maka raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you could sense that."

"It's not soul perception like yours," he admitted. "But after the whole music soul resonance thing, I'm more aware about our wavelengths and stuff like that."

The music… they had never been that close until that. The only thing that beat the music in terms of closeness (or rather intimacy, for one) was what happened two months ago. _That_ incident.

"It's fun making breakfast together once in a while," he said absently, smiling a little. "Now if we had Blaire with us, everything would be kinda normal."

"Huh?" Maka was forced out of her stupor. "Yes, Blaire. Blaire. Where is she anyway?"

"No idea," Soul scraped his tomatoes into the egg Maka had beaten. "Should we be worried?"

"I don't know," Maka said. "I mean she's been gone before for long periods of time, but with everything going on…"

"It is dangerous," Soul said quietly. "Well, she's an adult. I think. Wait how old is she again?"

"I don't know, but she's definitely an adult," Maka said, pouring the mixture into a pan, ignoring the sizzle. "We should ask her when she comes back."

"That'll be cool," he said. There was silence, which Maka couldn't deduce as comfortable or awkward. She suddenly felt the urge to do something stupid.

"Everything aside," she said, turning to face him fully. "We need to talk."

"Can it wait until after breakfast?" Soul asked, flipping the omelet. "We're doing something right now."

"I'm serious," she said quietly. "It's important."

He abandoned the eggs on the pan and turned to face her too. He looked apathetic, but she had known him long enough to discern his real mood underneath. His red eyes darted around the room, as if looking for escape routes (Maka was blocking the doorway). He was nervous; he probably guessed what she was trying to talk about, and he did NOT like it.

"And?" he asked, like he really didn't want an answer.

She didn't really want to give him an answer either, but she started this and it wouldn't be fair to leave it at that. She licked her lips and drew a breath.

"Two months ago," she said. Soul made a sharp noise. She ignored him. "Something happened."

"Something… did," he said shiftily. At least he wasn't going to be a jerk and deny it.

"We really should talk about it," she went on. He did not reply. "What did it mean to you?" she blurted out, and he acted like that question punched him in the face.

"Mean to me?" he asked, visibly uncomfortable. "I- what? What about you?"

"Me?" she asked in disbelief. "Come on, I asked you first!"

"Really, Maka?" he said, exasperated, running a hand through his hair, which she found oddly distracting. "Do we have to talk about this? Can't we… you know, forget about it?"

"No!" scrap whatever she said about him not being a jerk about it. "Soul, this has been affecting us- our relationship, our soul resonance-"

"To be fair, that was the stupid Kishin and _not_ what happened two months ago," he said edgily, teeth gritted, looking like he wanted to push past her and run.

"I don't think so," she said firmly. "Ever since that incident, we haven't really talked at all. It really sucks."

He didn't say anything for a long time, expression unreadable. Finally, he took a deep breath and said: "Can this wait?"

"Wh-what?"

"Can we put this conversation on hold until the whole Kishin thing is done? Thanks," and with that, he actually pushed past her and left the apartment before she could call him back.

"Fine," Maka said to thin air, more disappointed an embarrassed than she had ever been. They had been getting along so well lately: why had she gone and screwed it up? "Fine."

The eggs burned.

.

.

"Liz says that you're not allowed in," Patty said, as Kid approached the girl's room door. He jumped. For someone so boisterous and noisy, she was sure good at sneaking up on him. Maybe that was how he had nearly gotten mugged all those years ago.

"I wasn't going to snoop, Patty," he said as gently as he could. "I wanted to talk to her. Is she inside?"

"She told me to tell you that she was sleeping," Patty replied. "She isn't. She's listening to some music. With headphones. She can't hear us."

Thank goodness for Patty and her (unintentional) honesty. Now Kid knew Liz was mad at him.

"She's also mad at you," Patty said.

Well, now Kid knew that Liz was definitely mad at him, if even Patty had picked up on it.

"Are you?" he asked, rolling up the sleeves of his Shinigami robe. Usually he loved it, but lately he had been so tired all the time, that on some days, even the sleeves seemed to weigh his hands down. Today was one of those days.

"I don't know," she said, surprising him. Patty worshipped her sister to the core, and he was certain that she was furious with him too.

"Maybe I should be," she said, ripping up the paper she was coloring yellow. "But I'm not. Being Shinigami is hard on you. I should be understanding."

That was the most mature thing Kid had heard from her in a long time, and it honestly made him tear up a little. Being a Shinigami _was_ hard. The first few days of being one had been pure hell. With all that he had to do, he barely had time to grieve his father's death, and he had almost messed up everything when it came to dealing with criminals. If it weren't for Spirit, Sid and Nygus's guidance, experience, and quick thinking, he would have lets thirty-two robbers, murderers and gang members walk free. After that, he had gotten a bit better at dealing with liars and cheaters, but between that, the Kishin problem, Free running wild and some idiots targeting witches and making Maaba increasingly angry with him, he was overworked and tired. Many people who didn't know what he was going through thought he was doing a lousy job. It wasn't fair; they didn't know how difficult it was. Kid was going increasingly insane, being the leader of the entire world, only consoling himself that he was ready because all three of his lines of sanzu had connected.

Now even he was beginning to doubt that it meant anything.

"It is difficult," he admitted to her.

She nodded, beginning to color another paper yellow. "Who is going to fight the Kishin tonight?"

"No one," Kid said. "No moonlight is shining anywhere in the world tonight; it's just one of those nights."

"I see~" she said happily. "When do I get a turn?"

"I don't know," Kid said. "If you want to go soon, you can go with BlackStar and be his weapon for the day."

Her face brightened up; Kid knew that she and the meister were close friends, and often pulled several (annoying) practical jokes on their group of friends (mainly Liz and Tsubaki, as they had the best reactions). Going with him would be fun for her.

"How have you been after the Battle on the Moon?" he asked suddenly, surprising himself. He, Liz and Patty were extremely close, yes (the group sleepovers Liz kept organizing proved that), but they never really explicitly talked about their deepest feelings. They trusted each other to take care of their own problems- or rather the girls trusted Kid, and they trusted him back: he had no idea what went down privately between the sisters. They helped each other, but when they had problems, they brought it up themselves if they wanted the group to know. No one probed anyone, or forced anyone to spill. To be honest, Kid didn't know whether this was normal between all meister-weapon groups, but it was how he and the sisters worked.

Patty, thanks to her adaptable nature, took it in stride. "It's fine," she said. "It was sad, leaving Crona on the moon and seeing Shinigami die, but after that everything was ok."

Her answer was simple, devoid of any complicated feelings or intentions. Sometimes, Kid was jealous of her black and white view of the world, as it made situations seem a lot easier to deal with. Patty never changed, and that probably contributed to her view as well. Had Kid changed, though?

"How about you?" she asked back.

"Yes- everything is fine," he said quickly. If he tried to explain his real feelings, he and Patty would be there all afternoon and night.

"Good," she said, finishing her coloring, and crumpling up the paper too. Kid didn't know what she wanted to do with those, but he wouldn't bother asking for an explanation. He had the feeling that the explanation would be the most incomprehensible one in existence, that only BlackStar and Kilik would be able to fathom.

Kid began to walk to his room, to try and catch some sleep before he had a meeting with Kim and some other witches. He heard a ripping sound, and hurried back to see what the matter was. Thankfully, it wasn't a threat; Patty had only ripped out a sheet of paper, and was coloring it orange.

Kid raised his eyebrows. Maybe Patty changed too.

.

.

 **How'd you like it?**

 **Yep, I left you guys on a cliffhanger with Anya, Clay and Free. I'm evil.**

 **For anyone wondering, the incident that happened between Soul and Maka was nothing sexual. They are fifteen (Maka) and sixteen (Soul), and I don't feel comfortable with writing those kinds of scenes in general, but especially not with that age group.** ** _That incident_** **was certainly not something two platonic friends would do though.**

 **Blaire will make an important appearance soon. Also, how old is she by the way? If it was mentioned in the manga/anime, I didn't catch it.**

 **I have this weird headcannon that Soul doesn't use knives while chopping up vegetables. Why would you, when you have a built-in one in your body?**

 **One thing that was difficult for me in this chapter was writing Patty's character. Even though she is a main character in Soul Eater, we haven't really seen much character depth to her. Despite this, I still like her, and I hope I did her justice.**

 **The Kim and Jackie moment was the sappiest thing I've ever written, even though it isn't saying much (normally, I'm not much of a shipper- I do like seeing characters as friends more than I want to see them romantically involved). Did I do all right with it? Tell me in a review or a PM. I appreciate feedback.**

 **Anyway, there will be another update next week. It will be longer than this chapter (around 5000 words). Thank you so much to all those amazing people who favorited, followed and reviewed. It means a lot to me!**

 **-SpiderLover 3**


	5. Chapter 5

**Important announcement in the AN at the end of the story.**

.

.

Liz sighed and slumped against the wall. How stupid were Kid and Patty? Of course the whole listening to music excuse was a façade- she had heard the entire conversation.

Patty's understanding surprised her, and shook her up a bit. For her entire life, Liz had always taken care of her, trying her best to protect her from the rough, violent street life that their mother had left them to. She had constructed her life to revolve around protecting Patty. Why? Liz didn't often think about it (she wasn't that kind of girl who brooded over everything: for most of her life she never had the time to), but if she had to guess, it would be because she still remembered her mother.

Her mother left when Patty was two. Liz was four. While Patty didn't remember a thing about her old life, Liz vaguely remembered the way her mother ignored her. She remembered the strange, leering men. She remembered the noises from the next room every night. She remembered the rustling of money being passed from male hand to female hand the morning after.

And when her mother left, the pain and fright as they had to leave the house before the strange men took over it, or took them.

The next couple of years were a horrible blur, with the two mostly running, and crashing at the few safe houses on the streets of New York. They never stayed long.

But the one night that stood out, was when Liz was eight, and had pickpocketed a man. He found out and didn't take to it well.

Liz suspected that the two of them would have been dead if Patty hadn't accidently transformed into a gun for the first time, and Liz clumsily shot the man in the foot before they bolted.

Transforming into a weapon didn't come easily to Liz at all, so she became Patty's meister. It was good for both of them, since it prevented Patty from being injured during brawls, and basically served to keep her safe. In fact, Liz never really acted as the weapon, preferring to do the grunt work such as actually shooting people so Patty wouldn't have to see it.

Liz sheltered Patty the best she could.

It never occurred to her that Patty would have developed a personality of her own.

Liz took a moment to think to herself, as the sounds of Patty scribbling could be heard from outside. Out of everyone from the Spartoi, she had acted the most drastically when she found out that Kid was holding in more secrets than the times she had mugged people in Brooklyn.

Honestly, Liz had gotten over it in a day, but the fact that she was so upset creeped her out. She was supposed to be tough and ruthless as one of the former Brooklyn Devils. Maybe it had all changed after coming to Death City, but she hadn't realized how much until she lay in bed all night, trembling about the possibility that Kid wouldn't want her and Patty as much anymore since he became a Shinigami.

That had bothered her even more. Kid was the first person Liz (and therefore Patty) had trusted after their abandonment all those years ago. She realized that she'd do anything to keep him, Patty and the DWMA safe because she loved her new life here so much. She cut all ties she had with Brooklyn (not that she ever had any) and left it out of her mind.

The very possibility of it changing messed her up real bad. But it really wasn't fair to stress Kid out anymore than he already was. The poor boy was new to the whole Shinigami gig, and he had to be excused for screwing up every now and then.

Liz sighed again, and popped on headphones. Tomorrow, she would apologize to him.

.

.

"Hey, Maka."

"BlackStar."

"I thought you didn't come to the public gym to train."

"I don't really. I use the DWMA's arena. I for one am surprised that you're here. I thought you preferred to 'fight' random meisters on the streets."

"Ha ha. It's not even a fight. I'm so much stronger than them."

"Sure you are. Pass me the dumbbell. Wait- Is Kim watching Angela again?"

"Yeah. She and Kilik organized this play date between Angela and Fire and Thunder. Where's Soul?"

"Probably being an idiot somewhere."

"You guys fought?"

"I don't know."

"Did he do something to you? I can beat him up if you want me to."

"I have no doubt you'll be able to. And no; he didn't."

"Ok. Give me back the dumbbell."

"Sure. Hey- are you ok?"

"Yeah, why? Did Tsubaki tell you something?"

"Well, you've been pretty quiet lately. If this was a couple of months ago, you would go on and on about the last person you fought and why you're better than them. Besides, you never come to class anymore. Did something happen to you?"

"Nothing happened, Maka. I've been training, that's all."

"For every hour of every day?"

"Yup."

"That can't be good for you. Anyway, you should probably talk to Tsubaki. She's been really worried lately."

"Come on, man! I thought you wouldn't be one of those people trying to guilt trip me."

"Guilt trip?"

"You're not the only one. I've got Kid, Liz, Kim, Jackie, and Ox trying to convince me to come to class. Then there's freaking Sid and Marie who're threatening to expel my ass if I don't come to school or something."

"Sid-sensei and Marie-sensei, BlackStar. They're teachers. And aren't you worried that they'd expel you?"

"They can't cause I'm not eighteen yet. It's the law if you've been taken in by the DWMA because you have no parents."

"Did Tsubaki tell you this?"

"Nah, I overheard Sid telling Stein. Here- you can have the dumbbell again."

"Wipe your sweat off first. And I wasn't trying to guilt trip you, but it really not fair to Tsubaki if you just ignore her."

"Jeez, ok. Let's change the damn topic. What happened between you and Soul?"

"Nothing, alright? I wanted to talk about something, he didn't and then he left. That's it."

"Doesn't sound like it. Just tell me, wont you?"

" _No,_ BlackStar. Why do you want me to anyway? Didn't he fill you in on what happened?"

"Nope. Dunno why though. I'm his best friend and meister."

"Please. _I'm_ his meister. You can't even lift him in scythe form/"

"Psh, yeah, no- we're awesome together. Let's fight for Soul's friendship!"

"We don't have our weapons, you idiot. And besides, you can have him as your 'bestie' or whatnot because I don't care."

"You don't look like you don't care. Let's fight anyway! One on one!"

"No! If it's hand-to-hand combat, we all know you're better than me. That punch you gave me last year was proof of that."

"Heh. So you admit it."

"Don't get so cocky. I knocked you out with a book once."

"I was caught of guard!"

"Excuses."

"I'm still stronger."

"If you say so."

"Whatever."

"Look, I won't fight you, but we can still compete. Do you want to find out which one of use can do more pull-ups in a row?"

"You're on, Albarn."

.

.

Azusa kicked herself as she, walked out of the office after receiving information about Clay and Anya Hepburn as the emergency personnel took care of the two. What was she thinking? She was the one with her Thousand-mile-eyes power and should have been with the two, or at least have maintained a steady stream of communication with them. That way, even when they were sealed in with Free's arithmetic magic, she could have summoned backup sooner.

No, that was an unacceptable excuse. She should have predicted that Free could seal them in. She was a disgrace to Death Scythes.

As she walked out, she caught sight of Meme Tatane huddled in the corner of the bench, and Tsugumi Harudori trying her best to comfort Clay, who had his head in his hands. A pang of grief resonated through Azusa. Of course, this would be harder on Akane, as Clay had sustained more serious injuries while he tried to shield Anya Hepburn. Logically, that was utterly nonsensical as the meister was supposed to be fighting using the weapon, but she supposed that Clay still saw Anya as the person he had to protect from all those years ago.

Tsugimi Harudori caught sight of her and straightened up. As the other two looked at her as well, Azusa put her game face on. After all, she was the leader and the oldest person here. She couldn't afford to get emotional.

"They are both alive," she said, earning relieved sighs from the girls. "Anya Hepburn has several lacerations on her body and has some internal bleeding. Her cuts are infected, but it's nothing she will not fully recover from."

"And Clay?" Meme Tatane asked, voice quivering. Azusa sighed. This was going to be difficult.

"His injuries are more serious," she said finally. "He too has internal bleeding, but the doctors are worried that his right eye is beyond repair."

Akane made a little groaning noise in despair, and Tsugumi Harudori rubbed his back in a futile effort to comfort him.

"Kimial Deil from the EAT class is a healer," the girl said, tearing up. "Can't she fix him?"

"I have contacted the DWMA to summon her," Azusa said. "But it will take her a day to get here. By then, it will be too late."

Akane resumed burying his head in his hands. Azusa took sight of the four of them. They were all filthy from wading through the sewage, and were covered in the blond duo's blood. She was surprised that the hospital even let her in, as she was a walking health code violation.

"There is nothing we can do right now," she said. "The best we can do is to clean ourselves up and prepare for the two's return."

Her words were only taken in by Meme Tatane, who gave her a faint smile and nodded.

"Akane, are you alright?" Tsugumi asked timidly.

As if her words were a catalyst, he stood up and smiled at her. "I'm fine. Let's go clean up like Azusa said."

His confident façade fooled absolutely no one. Even Azusa who had only been working with him for very little time could see his red eyes and tense posture. But like her, he was a professional, whose job had these risks. It was his duty to keep it together, while the other girls were allowed to break down. Azusa admired the two's duo: after only half a year in the EAT class, they were remarkably resilient.

However, she was disturbed that Harudori's words had such a transforming effect on Akane. While in this case it was definitely positive, Azusa wondered if she would distract him from the mission. After all, Clay told her that Akane did have a soft spot for the girl.

Azusa shook her head. Right now, it was too soon to be worrying about their relationship, especially when she had minimal information about it. After a reminder about getting cleaned up, Azusa lead the way to their hotel, with Akane and Harudori whispering about something a few meters behind, and Meme Tatane hovering between Azusa and the pair. Eventually, she gave up and walked next to Azusa.

"Are you alright?" Azusa finally asked her. The brunette's head snapped up and her eyes widened; this was the first time that Azusa had spoken directly to her.

"Yes- I- I'm worried about Clay, but I'm glad Anya will be fine."

"That's good," Azusa said. "Are you still continuing with the mission?"

"Yes," the girl said firmly. The pair walked in a somewhat awkward silence, as Azusa tried to recollect all the information she had about the girl. Three years ago, there had been some attacks by the witch Shaula Gorgon, and Meme Tatane had been possessed by the witch for nearly a year, and as a result, was forced to kill Sid-sensei. Azusa personally was astonished that the girl had made such a sound recovery from the pain of being possessed, as well as the guilt of killing someone. No wonder Akane had said that the girl would be a valuable asset to the team, since she was the very definition of resilience.

Of course, there was the other information that was more popular around the DWMA. Harudori, Meme Tatane and Anya Hepburn were the first DWMA students to have a team of two meisters and one weapon. As if to make them even more unique, the three (along with Clay and Akane) had killed the witch Shaula Gorgon while still being not students right after making their team official. When she got to know, Azusa was perplexed, but the team had good relationships with each other, and the two meisters were able to handle the halberd well. As a testament to their strength as a team, several other students tried to form groups of two meisters and one weapon. Their teams had all failed.

While she was never one to have emotional attachments to people (her upbringing and reputation in the DWMA made sure of it), Azusa was beginning to feel an odd connection to the group. After all, they were all mere children of seventeen and eighteen, while she was nearly twice their age. It was strange and it disturbed her, but after the events half a year ago, she begun to think that it wasn't so bad.

Baffled people openly gawked at the four. While Meme Tatane shot them dirty looks (Azusa suspected that she and Meme would get along very well) and Akane and Harudori ignored them, Azusa tried to obscure the children as much as she could. After all, she wanted to protect them in any way she could.

.

.

Kim sighed as she sank into the chair cushions, and Thunder fell asleep in her lap. That girl was way too cute, but like any other child, was extremely hyperactive and wore Kim out. It was a miracle that she had managed to fall asleep while Fire and Angela fought viciously over a stuffed rabbit. Just as Kilik lunged to save it, said rabbit tore into two and the stuffing fell everywhere.

"Ah jeez, guys! This was Thunder's favorite toy! How did you manage to break it?" Kilik groaned as he gathered up the stuffing as the two children went to fight over a cow instead. "Hey, thanks for helping me watch the kids," he told Kim

"No problem," Kim said, careful not to move too much and wake Thunder. "They're really cute. It's pretty cool that you were able to raise them on your own."

Kilik rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Nah, I don't really. They technically live in the DWMA's dorms. My apartment was deemed too small of a place for three people to live," it was. The living room and Kilik's bedroom was one room, and there was a tiny kitchen and a bathroom. That was about it.

"Still," Kim said. "You've been with them for four years now?"

"Yep. And you and Jackie- three years?"

"Mm-hm."

Kilik took Thunder to put her in a bed before she woke up to see that her rabbit was mutilated. When he came back, he was sporting a goofy grin, which Kim immediately knew was not going to be good for either of them.

"Kimial Diehl, as your team leader and benevolent benefactor, I feel obliged to share my wisdom and-"

"Spill it, Kilik before I punch you," she hissed at him, hoping to intimidate him with her witch aura. It didn't work.

"So a little birdie told me-"

"Harvar," despite his icy exterior, he was a sucker for in team gossip.

"Yup. He told me something about our dear team member Ox Ford giving up liking you," the utility meister said devilishly. Kim raised her eyebrows. Well that would certainly explain why he hadn't been annoying her lately.

"So, Kimial Diehl-"

"Don't call me that."

"-Does this bother you? Are you feeling the poison of rejection seeping through your veins? Do you, gasp, want him back?"

Kim groaned. "Please never, ever read Maka's book collection again for the good of humanity and witches as well. And no, I'm perfectly fine with this. Happy in fact. It's a welcome change."

The look on Kilik's face told her that that was exactly what he wanted to here. Kim cursed herself. She should have never bothered to respond to him in the first place.

"Well that's great," he said, grinning like an idiot. "Your Kilik dating service has found another person for you."

"Kilik, I swear to the Shinigami-"

"The DWMA has a very nice female weapon looking for some lady lovin'. Heard of Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre? Extremely beautiful, intelligent and has a stunning personality and is totally compatible-"

"I'm going to kill you!" Kim leapt at him and begun to pummel him as he only laughed. That little… she was his senior (two years ha ha) and he dared to talk to her that way? And shipping her and Jackie like that… Kim's face burned just thinking about it.

"Kim!" the door opened and Nygus-sensei burst in, looking disheveled and startling the children. "You need to- what are you doing?"

Kim gave Kilik's head one final whack with her shoe (he had no more brain cells to lose) as the boy collapsed on the floor laughing. "Nothing. What happened, sensei?"

"The team searching for Free had an accident," she said. "Anya Hepburn and Clay Sizemore are severely injured and Azusa requires your help."

"What?" Kim and Kilik jumped to their feet, all initial playfulness gone. Kim remembered Anya Hepburn, the tsundere blonde who often hung out with the idiot trio (as Kim liked to call Tsuguni Harudori, Meme Tatane and the blonde) as well as her and Jackie.

"When do we go?" Kilik asked.

"Kid's Shinigami helicopter is waiting," Nygus-sensei said. "He's allowed you to borrow it for this emergency."

"Good," Kilik said. "Sensei, can you please take care of the twins and Angela? I'm going with Kim."

"Kilik-" Nygus-sensei begun.

"I'm not letting you go alone," he said, completely serious. Kim knew that Nygus-sensei was aware that arguing with Kilik was more trouble than it was worth, so she didn't even try.

"Thanks," Kim said, grabbing her jacket.

He squeezed her shoulder. "It's no problem," he said. "Now let's go."

The next few minutes were a blur as the two made their way to the DWMA, where a very tense Kid was standing next to the helicopter. Kim felt sorry for him as it couldn't be easy having to keep everything together at the moment, but the Shinigami only ushered them in before ordering the pilot to take off without another word to them.

Inside, the two didn't talk in the beginning. Kim was sick with worry, since even though she hadn't kept in touch with Anya Hepburn for years, she didn't want anything bad to happen to her. And the two were assaulted by Free? That was worse. Ox had told her the tales Maka told him about the fight with Free in London. Apparently, the man was brutal when fighting the enemy.

"Hey, it's going to be ok," Kilik said to her, as if sensing her worry. He for one looked anxious, despite not knowing Clay or Anya personally.

She could only nod as the helicopter sped to where her friends were dying.

.

.

Soul kicked over a pebble in the outskirts of the DWMA, as he went over the conversation between him and Maka, getting angrier and angrier with himself every time he replayed it in his mind. It wasn't cool, cutting her off when she tried to get them to talk about what happened. It was a total jerk move, and if anyone else had done what he did to his meister, he would beat them up, of course after waiting until Maka beat them up herself before he did so.

His anger was mixed with embarrassment as well. What had happened was definitely something no two friends would do, and if he could, he would take it back. What was he thinking that time? It certainly wasn't the first time something weird had happened between them, but that was only under the influence of 'love potions' that BlackStar gave them to be funny. This had been of their own accord, which made the whole thing about a hundred times worse.

To top it all off, Soul was confused as well. He and Maka had been friends for _years_ and had faced some real crap together. They had been able to brush off some really awkward moments between the two (like that whole gender switching incident in the book of Eibon- that was _bizarre_ ), but now they couldn't. Why? Did he not consider her as a friend anymore? Or was it something different? His face turned red just thinking about that. No, he didn't think of her like _that_ (just as yet), but what they had certainly wasn't an innocent friendship anymore.

That pissed him off. As cheesy as it sounded, Maka was the first read friend he had, and despite her stubbornness, unnecessary violence towards him, unhealthy obsession towards reading and her serious daddy issues (wow, it was a miracle they were even friends in the first place), he really valued her. What was happening now… it was probably impossible to ever go back to the friendship they had before.

That thought made him angry, and restarted the whole cycle of feelings again, which made Soul even madder. Since when did he have so many feelings (ugh that sounded like a line in this movie that Liz made their team watch- it was traumatizing)? Wasn't he supposed to be the master of apathy? And now he would have to come home to face Maka again. It was a pity that BlackStar was going to fight the Kishin with Patty tonight. He could have made the excuse to crash at his place, but now, it would be weird to ask Tsubaki if he could. What other close friends did he have other than BlackStar, Maka and (to some extent) Liz? No one really. That was pathetic.

Soul kicked over another pebble to show the world how angry he was. It rolled into a ditch, and to his surprise, something in the ditch _groaned_.

What was that? Transforming his left arm into a scythe blade, Soul inched towards the open drain ready to fight of a monster or rabid dog if it came to it. But there was no monster or rabid dog.

Camouflaging with the rotting dead leaves and mud was a dirt and leaf smeared person. The figure of a woman was curled up facing away from him, and from the looks of it, was still breathing but was unconscious. Soul nearly screamed when he realized that adorning the woman's exposed arms, legs and head was dark, dried blood, that he would have mistaken as the black blood if he hadn't seen some other fresh red blood leaking out of other gashes. Mixing with the blood was dark tangled hair. Had she been assaulted? What happened? She was a young woman and wasn't carrying any weapons (as far as he could tell), had someone- no that was too awful to imagine. He had to help her before he started assuming the worse. He would take her to the DWMA, and hopefully Kim would be able to heal her. But first, Soul would have to lift her up.

Breathing heavily to prevent a panic attack, Soul carefully used the blunt part of his scythe blade to turn the woman over. How long had she been lying in there? Not more than a day by the looks of it, but he didn't want to risk touching her and contracting an infection. As she turned to face him, he noticed that she was wearing a short tank top, as well as a pair of very short shorts. That looked familiar. His eyes flitted to the woman's face, and he jumped back in horror.

"No, no, _no_!" ignoring his previous aversion of touching her, he gathered the woman in his arms in an attempt to pull her out of the ditch. "No!"

Barely recognizable amongst the blood and dirt, was a young heart-shaped face, framed by short purple hair save for two long locks curling inwards.

"BLAIRE!"

.

.

 **…** **And I left you with a cliffhanger again. We finally see Blaire, although not in the way that many of you were expecting. Oh well.**

 **Recently, I've been trying to make a clear distinction of writing styles between each character. I hope I did it ok. Also, what did you think of the only dialog section between Maka and BlackStar?**

 **The incident that happened between Soul and Maka will be revealed in the next couple of chapters. For anyone who was wondering, I wrote Soul as unsure of his feelings, because when all is said and done, he's a sixteen-year-old boy who has had no prior romantic experience. Also, the incident with the love potions was actually canon. In one of the extras, Soul and Maka accidentally drank I love potion (or at least I think they did- it was definitely an external influence) and got in a relationship (that part, I'm sure about). I thought it was pretty funny.**

 **Kilik is the number one Kim x Jackie shipper. Like Ox and Jackie's friendship, I wish we got to see more interactions between him and Kim. Also, him going with her was nothing romantic. I just think that he'd be the type of person to accompany his friend when she's worried.**

 **Anyway, thanks to those fantabulous people who reviewed, favorited and followed. You're amazing!**

 **For the next month, I don't know how often I'm going to update, since I will be going to a place with very little wifi. I', not abandoning this story though.**

 **-SpiderLover**


	6. Chapter 6

"He'll be ok," Kim shakily stood up after a very intense fifteen minutes. "His eyesight may be a little worse though. The cut was deep and I don't know how much I was able to fix that."

"Thank you," Akane said shortly, although he was breathing easier now.

"Could the sight problem be fixed with glasses?" Anya asked. She had easily been healed in a very short time.

"It could," Kim said. Anya breathed a sigh of relief, which Kim thought was odd since she wasn't all that close to Clay. Then she remembered that Clay had gotten the injury from trying to protect Anya. "He'll be ok," she reiterated.

"When will he wake up?" asked Azusa, who had been quiet the whole time that Kim was there.

"Soon," she said. There was an awkward silence.

"Well, thank you," Azusa finally said. "What would you like to do now? I can contact the pilot to take you back tonight if you wish, or you could stay with us until the morning and get some sleep."

"I have to go back," Kim hurriedly said, feeling a bit disappointed. She did want to catch up with Tsugumi, Meme and Anya more after all those years, especially since that she was a much nicer person now and would probably value their friendship a whole lot more. But she wasn't alone here right now.

"How about you, Kilik-kun?" asked Meme Tatane to the boy who was standing silently in the corner.

"Whatever Kim wants," Kilik said.

Kim shot him a weak smile. She appreciated that, but it would be selfish for both of them to stay where they were; after all, Fire and Thunder needed him, and Kid and the witches needed her. And… Jackie. She needed her too.

Kim didn't want to admit it, but once the initial shock and fear of her friends being injured had dulled down a bit, her mind had turned to Kilik's teasing. Why _did_ he think that she and Jackie would be a good couple? Kim totally thought that Jackie and Harvar would get together since they had extremely similar personalities- studious and aloof to the point of coldness. And Jackie looking for some _lady lovin'?_ What? Did Jackie like girls?

If she did, then why did Kilik know and Kim didn't? She thought Jackie trusted her enough to tell her important stuff like whom she liked. Clearly, that wasn't the case right now. Did Jackie think that Kim wouldn't care about her if she liked girls? Did Jackie really think that Kim would ditch her over that?

"Kim?" a timid voice piped up. Tsugumi shook her arm gently. "We were asking you what you wanted to do."

Embarrassed at zoning out, Kim cleared her throat and frowned. "We'll be going back tonight. Just don't hesitate to contact me if something goes wrong."

"Of course," Azusa said immediately. "You all can say your goodbyes. I shall go contact the pilot."

She slipped out of the room. Immediately, the remaining people sprung into conversation. Tsugumi and Akane slid next to Clay's bed and had another one of their muted discussions. Anya, Meme and Kilik begun to talk about something or the other regarding martial arts. Kim sighed. _Girl, you're overtired and overworked,_ she told herself sternly. _Nothing's wrong with you. Jackie may not even be into girls after all. Kilik may have just been goofing off. You will deal with this after all this crap is over with_.

Kim smiled after her little self-talking-to. She needed that.

* * *

"Maka!" the scream woke her up immediately. When did she fall asleep?

"Maka!" the voice shouted again, more urgently. She rolled out of bed and ran for the front door. Without thinking twice, she wrenched the door open.

"Soul?"

"Thank Shinigami," he said. "I-"

"Blaire!" Maka screamed, seizing one of the girls' arms and taking some of the weight. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Soul said. The three of them were shaking so badly that it was hard to keep them all standing. Soul himself looked wild, eyes wide from terror and hair and clothes bloodstained and smeared with dirt. Where did he find her?

"Why did you bring her here?"

"I-" his voice wavered and then he spoke again. "I found her in a ditch. The DWMA is too far away from here. Please- help me."

"Yes of-course," Maka said. "Where's Kim? She can heal Blaire and she lives nearby."

"I'll call her," Soul darted to the phone.

Maka wasn't sure how much time had passed, since she was so occupied with cleaning the dirt and blood off Blaire as well as periodically checking to make sure the woman still had a pulse. Her mind and heart was racing. How had this happened? Who did this? Self-loathing overwhelmed her. Why hadn't she made an effort to bring Blaire back after she disappeared? Then she wouldn't have been beaten up and left in a ditch for Shinigami knows how long. Oh no: what if something else had happened? Maka had to force herself not to throw up right then and there. How had Soul been able to handle it? Finding Blaire's body and single-handedly bringing her here? That must have taken a lot out of him.

Soul ran back into the room, shaking his head. "Kim's not in the country."

"What? Why?"

"Jackie answered the phone. Said that Kim and Kilik had to go help up the team that was tracking down Free."

"What do we do..." Maka ran her hands through her hair (which she would later find out got blood in it). "We'll have to take her to the DWMA."

He nodded, again going back to the phone. Honestly, Maka wasn't even sure that the DWMA could help. But it was too risky to take her to the regular hospital. Even though she wasn't a witch, Blaire hadn't been the most peace-loving individual before moving in with Maka and Soul, and had often attacked the hospital. Bringing her there in the state she was in… it was too risky. But perhaps Kid could do something.

"Sid's sending the ambulance," Soul walked back into the room. "And I think BlackStar and Tsubaki are coming here too. Jackie contacted them."

Maka sighed in relief. "Soul- I'm so lost here. I'm not a medic. I don't know what to do."

"I don't either," he said, still shaking. "Did you clean her up?"

"I tried," she replied. "Most of the blood has dried up. She's not bleeding anymore. Shinigami- how long has she been out there?"

He didn't answer. "Come on, Blaire. Wake up."

The girl didn't move.

"Is she still alive?" he finally asked Maka.

"She has a pulse," she said. "It's not strong."

He sucked his cheeks in, and looked like he was about to say something when a deafening sound got closer and closer to the apartment, accompanied with shining lights.

"Ambulance," he said.

The next half an hour was a blur, with the emergency personnel immediately hooking Blair up with an oxygen mask and carrying her out of the building. Sid-sensei was there, helping direct the officials, and trying to be there for the meister-weapon duo. Soon, Maka and Soul found themselves in the ambulance too, headed for the DWMA. Maka hated the ride. She and Soul were too shaken-up to talk to anyone, and although the emergency personnel were bustling around trying to fix up Blaire, the noise was nothing more than a dull roar in the background.

Still trying to soothe her spinning head, she noted Soul shakily trying to explain how he found Blaire. He was still shaking. After glancing down at her own hands, she realized that she was too. It was difficult, but Maka tried to drown out the headache by focusing on what Soul was telling the officials.

"Yes- I did find her in a ditch near Death City's outskirts. No, she wasn't moving."

"Was anything or anyone with her when you found her?"

"I don't think so. No."

"Your name is Soul Eater Evans, yes?"

"Yes."

"A Death Scythe? The last one?"

"I am."

How was this relevant? Maka could clearly see that Soul was becoming uncomfortable with the personal questions. He didn't really appreciate revealing anything about himself to anyone. The official could see that too, as she quickly changed the questioning, deeming this enough to prove his credibility.

"How do you know Blaire?"

"She lives with my flatmate and I," he said, glancing at Maka, as if asking her approval on his choice of words. She gave him a half smile, still too keyed up to say anything.

"Is she a legal roommate?" the official frowned.

"I- uh-" he stuttered uneasily.

"We didn't fill out any paperwork to register her as a resident if that's what you meant," Maka quickly filled in, voice rusty from disuse.

"I see. Well, that doesn't matter right now. Where is her home?" when Maka opened her mouth to answer, the official quickly filled in, "legally."

Maka and Soul exchanged glances. "We don't know," Soul said. All Blaire had mentioned when she came to stay with the duo was that she sold her old lair. The didn't know to who. The official raised an eyebrow.

"Is she over twenty one?" she asked. "As you know, it will be much easier to offer her treatment if she is an adult."

"Oh."

"We... don't know that either."

The official did a good job of hiding it, but flash of disbelief on her face clearly indicated that she was starting to doubt the credibility of Soul's story.

Maka's insides bubbled over with shame. How could they not know how old Blaire was? What kind of flatmates were she and Soul? If Blaire never got treated, it would be their fault. _No,_ a voice piped up inside her. _Kid won't let that happen._ Well, Kid couldn't keep getting them out of messes forever. It would tarnish his reputation of being a fair Shinigami, and to effectively rule, it was essential to keep the reputation clean.

The official spared them another suspicious glance and went to talk to the other personnel. Soul got up from his chair and sat down next to Maka.

"What now?" he asked. "They don't believe us."

"They have to," she tried to reassure him. "Kid'll get us out of this mess if they don't."

He groaned, and she knew that he hated having Kid get them out of messes as much as she did. But if it helped Blaire...

"This place is fairly lax with rules, though," he said quietly, "compared to other places."

Oh right. Maka forgot that Soul never grew up in Death City like she did. He only moved in when he was around twelve or so. That was odd to think of; he seemed to attuned to living here and never seemed to have a culture shock like some others did. Then again, she only got to know him a month after he joined, so he must have adjusted quickly before trying to find a partner.

"I guess," she said. That ended the conversation.

* * *

"Hey Tsubaki," BlackStar poked his head around the door of their shared bedroom.

"Mm?" she didn't look up from the jigsaw puzzle she was piecing together with Angela. The little witch had barged into the room a couple of hours ago and demanded that Tsubaki played with her. Unable to resist the puppy eyes, the girl immediately obliged.

"We're going to the hospital," he said, tossing her her coat.

"What happened?"

"I'm not really sure. I got a call from Jackie, who said something about Blaire, injuries and the DWMA. That was all she could pick up from her conversation with Soul."

"Oh no," Tsubaki jumped up and ran out the door, holding Angela in her arms. "Come on now!"

The trio ran out of the house. "Can you drive us there?" BlackStar asked tentatively.

"I- I think so," she only had a learner's permit, but this could easily count as an emergency. Besides, the roads from their house to the DWMA were fairly easy to drive through. They all bundled off into the car.

A few minutes later, the group had pulled up outside the DWMA. Tsubaki wasn't the best parallel parker, but all things considered, she thought she had done a fairly decent job. That is, until she saw a very queasy Angela and BlackStar thanking the heavens that the drive was over. Oh.

"Not- feeling- well," Angela tottered around. "Need- to-"

"Aw man," BlackStar said. "She needs to go to the bathroom, but Maka and Soul-"

"I'll take her," Tsubaki said sheepishly. "It's my fault she feels like this anyway. You go see Maka and Soul. I'll help out Angela."

He gave her a small smile and ran off instantly. Tsubaki turned to the little witch, who was now retching.

"The ice-cream wants to come out now," she groaned.

"Ice-cream? When did you eat that?"

"When you were in the bathroom."

Tsubaki's eye twitched. "You and I are going to have a long talk after this whole mess is over."

"Okay... what's going on?"

"I'll tell you later. First, let's find a bathroom," Tsubaki hefted up the girl in her arms and ran into the building. The ran through the halls, hoping to Shinigami that she still remembered where the bathroom closest to the entrance was. There wasn't any for the students, but there was still the staff bathroom! Hopefully they'd see that this was an emergency and excuse her this one time.

After a few minutes, they were right outside the bathroom.

"Good!" Angela tried to push the door open, when-

"So rescuing Crona is a no-no?"

Rescuing Crona? Who was talking about that?

"Angela!" she hissed. "Don't go in there!"

"Need to throw up!"

"Oh no… Throw up in the plant!" before she could think to retract the order, the child raced down the deserted hall and emptied her stomach into the potted plant in the corner. Tsubaki silently apologized to whoever next found the vomit. Then she turned her attention back to the mysterious speakers and pressed her ear against the door. This was more of what BlackStar would do, but Tsubaki would be lying if she said she wasn't curious.

"That's not what we're saying, Marie," the other voice said. Marie? As in Marie-sensei? Why was she still talking about this? Didn't Spirit-sensei give orders to not talk about rescuing Crona? Were they disobeying him?

"I know, Mira," Marie-sensei replied back. "I think our situation is too big to sit back and do nothing."

"We all do," this Mira person said back. Who was Mira? Mira Nygus? She was in on this too? "With Asura, BREW, Crona and the blood on the moon, there is no telling what will happen next. We have to research."

The name BREW sounded familiar. Right! It was the magical object that the Spartoi had to get from a magnetic time warp a little over a year ago before their formation. It had been an interesting time. Why was BREW on the moon?

"We're wasting time," Marie-sensei replied. "We have a child on the moon. I don't agree with Spirit. What kind of people are we, leaving a child on the moon alone?"

"Marie, there's no use getting emotional," Nygus-sensei implored. "There are only a few people who know of our situation right now. It will be terrible if we split up."

"You're right. When are we telling the children?"

"Spirit didn't say anything about it yet," was the reply. Tsubaki's head spun. Spirit-sensei knew about this too?

"When are we telling Kid?"

Kid didn't know? What were they thinking?

"He says after-"

"Hey, Tsubaki~" Angela's voice piped up. Tsubaki jumped. Amidst the hushed whispers, Angela sounded like she had just yelled. "I'm feeling much better now."

The voices stopped talking. Tsubaki froze.

"Sh!" After a second of even more muffled whispers, Nygus-sensei and Marie-sensei walked out.

"Good afternoon, Tsubaki," Nygus-sensei said. "Did you need something? When did you get here?"

"Right now. I- uh, no. Angela, she wasn't feeling too well so I was wondering-"

"The ice cream wanted to come out~" the child sang proudly. The adults' eyes bugged.

"Say no more," Marie-sensei said awkwardly. "Use the bathroom all you want."

And with that, the two adults rushed away, so preoccupied that they missed the stink wafting from the soaked plant in the corner. As soon as she realized that they were gone, Tsubaki slumped against the wall and sighed.

"Feeling better?"

"Yep yep."

"Then let's go see Maka and Soul," Tsubaki picked up the witch again. "They need us right now."

* * *

 **Hey guys!**

 **Sorry about the late and short chapter. Right now, my life is a bit of a mess, and I couldn't update this story at all. That being said, I'm not abandoning it. I promise, as soon as all the madness dies away, I'll give you all a proper chapter again. Thanks for understanding.**

 **A big thank you to all those incredible people who favorited, followed and reviewed. It means a lot to me.**

 **Next chapter coming soon! (I promise)**

 **SpiderLover. 3**


	7. Chapter 7

"She'll be ok?" Maka asked fervently.

"She should," Stein said. "Her injuries are mainly superficial and are above the waist, so there's no chance of, well-"

"Good," Soul sighed in relief. Blaire had already gone through so much, it would be terrible if their worst fear came true.

"How long will she be sleepin'?" BlackStar piped up. The three jumped and turned to him, as if they forgot he was still there. Huh. That had never happened before. No one _ever_ ignored the great and powerful BlackStar.

"It's called a coma, BlackStar," Sid said, and BlackStar could almost hear the smirk in his voice. "And she'll be out of it in a day or so."

"Comas are weird," he grumbled.

"Well if you want to know about them, all you have to do is read this pamphlet about them," Sid was really smirking now. "Go on, take it."

Glowering, BlackStar wrenched it away. That Sid. BlackStar should have known that it was a mistake, letting it slip to the man that he was having trouble with his letters five years ago. Although BlackStar didn't think that Sid would actually bring it up like this. A funny feeling grew in the pit of his stomach- one that only arose when someone described Kid as the strongest meister in the DWMA, or when Angela pouted that she loved Tsubaki more than she loved BlackStar.

It was probably no big deal.

He quickly scanned over the paper, understanding about half the words there. He'd ask Tsubaki to explain it later or something. Speaking of Tsubaki-

The door creaked open, and a very shaken looking Tsubaki lead Angela into the room. She gave them all a shaky smile.

"Sorry I'm late," she sounded sheepish, "how is she?"

Stein, Sid and Maka all moved to talk to the girl, while Angela busied herself with drawing on the walls, using a piece of brick that she had wrenched from the other wall. Soul remained seated in his chair, and BlackStar took the opportunity to slip next to him.

"Dude, what _happened_?" Soul frowned.

"Found her in a ditch," he said thickly. "Who knows how long she'd been in there."

BlackStar nodded. "She'll be fine," he said finally.

"You think so?" it was less of a question and more of a bored sounding statement.

"Of course," he said. "She's pretty strong."

Soul gave him a faint smile. "Heh. I'll tell her you said that. Speaking of which, what's with all the training lately?"

The dreaded conversation. "I just feel like it," that should have been a good enough reason. Soul rolled his eyes and then said sharply:

"People don't just train intensively just because they feel like it. What's your reason?"

BlackStar tensed. "What, you're an expert on training and people now?"

Soul blanched, and BlackStar realized only then that he probably crossed some boundaries. He knew Soul had some insecurity about not being as strong as Maka or something along those lines. BlackStar never really checked.

"I'm your friend," he said eventually. "I have every right to know if you're doing something crazy so I can stop it."

"You're no fun," anger begun to simmer inside him. A year ago, Soul would be gung ho for doing something crazy. He'd join in with no question, just like how he and BlackStar tag-teamed to try and beat Kid some time ago. Now, Soul was no fun at all. He always looked at the 'safety factor' of things, and usually sided with Maka when she and BlackStar argued. BlackStar had completely given up on trying to include him in the 'crazy plans' now. "And yeah, I'm planning something. It's just none of your business."

"Huh," Soul looked surprised, as if he didn't expect BlackStar to tell him that. "Fine then. Just- Tsubaki has a right to know."

"Yeah, yeah."

Soul gave him an odd look, and joined in the others' conversation.

The thing was, BlackStar did have plans. That stupid Asura was stuck on the moon, and fighting those dumb resurrected kishins under the moonlight was the closest thing to actually fighting him. This annoyed BlackStar to no end. The Battle on the Moon ended on what Tsubaki called a 'cliffhanger'- it lacked what Maka said was a 'resolution'. And that 'resolution' was him pounding the Kishin to the dust. BlackStar was a warrior. He would beat all that were stronger than him. Right now, Asura was the only one left, and he was stuck on the moon, only covered in blood. A moon now so weak, that in the night it looked like it was made of black paper.

He smirked. Black Paper Moon. Now that was an interesting one.

Now BlackStar had to get stronger. Strong enough to take on Asura and free Crona. And if he couldn't do that…

Then he would destroy the moon.

.

.

"Have you found out anything about BREW yet?" Nygus demanded.

"Mira, I had exactly one hour to search the library. I'm hardly ready with a research paper," Marie scoffed.

"But did you find anything?"

Maire sighed. "I did find a book," she said. Stein gently took it.

"It's old," he noted. "Much after Eibon, but this should be before most of his work was lost."

"And you think it'll have information about BREW?" Spirit asked skeptically. The room felt silence. Everyone knew that the odds of finding anything useful or new about BREW were miniscule.

"It doesn't," Stein said, flipping through it. "Nothing at all."

Everyone groaned, and mutterings of _this is hopeless_ and _what a waste_ flitted throughout the group.

"Now come on," Sid said. "I wasn't the kind of person who gave up when I was alive," he said. "We just have to work with what we have."

"Fine," Nygus snapped. "What do we know?"

"It's an extremely powerful magic device," Spirit begun. "No one knows its full extent."

"So neither should Asura," Stein concluded. "We'd know if he did."

"We wouldn't live to see it," Marie said, uncharacteristically snidely. It must have been the hormones.

"True," Sid pointed out. "And only the first Shinigami knew its full purpose."

"Wait, did he?" Stein asked. "He didn't say anything about it to me."

"Didn't he?" Spirit said. "I don't know… I assumed that he did."

"Well, considering that he left Kid the throne completely unexpectedly, I don't think anyone has an idea of what he does or does not know," Nygus grumbled.

"True," said Marie. "Let's move on."

"Wait a minute," Stein said. "Let's say that BREW is reacting with something on the moon."

"Ok…" Sid gestured for his friend to continue.

"What could it react with?"

"There are a lot of options," Marie said. "There's the black blood, Asura or even Crona-"

"I doubt that anything is reacting with Crona," Stein said. "After being disassociated from the blood, Crona is a regular meister. BREW acts to amplify soul wavelength and we all know that Crona's wavelength isn't strong enough without a weapon."

Everyone nodded. That much was true. After being accepted into the DWMA, Crona and Ragnarok had undergone rigorous testing about the capacity of their soul wavelengths, and Crona's individual strengths. It had been concluded that Crona was one of those typical meisters whose soul wavelength couldn't be used as a raw weapon. In fact, it was that knowledge that had mollified the governors into letting Crona into the DWMA.

"True," Spirit said, "Now BREW could be reacting with the blood or even Asura."

"Could we rule out Asura?" asked Nygus-sensei doubtfully. "I mean, not much is known about Asura's powers."

"We'll have to look at Medusa's black blood research for that," Stein said quietly.

Everyone felt silent.

"Hey," Marie spoke up eventually. "You do realize what you're asking us to do here."

"I do," he said irritably. After everything, Medusa's research had been burnt up, as one of Kid's very first orders. At that time, it had seemed smart. The power of the blood was too dangerous to run rampant amongst the more corrupt of meisters. But now… no one had any idea of the boundaries of the research. Except for maybe two individuals.

"No," Sid said. "Kid would never allow it."

"Kid would never allow this either, buddy," Spirit said gently. "We're in so deep with disobeying him that this can't possibly hurt."

"Can't possibly hurt?" Nygus stood up, raising her voice. "Spirit, we're going to be conspiring with known criminals here!"

"Conspiring's too strong a word," Spirit said, though looking uncomfortable.

"Stein, you can't be serious," Marie glared at her lover. "Think about this!"

Stein only sighed, eyes hidden by his glasses. He sighed. "The prison security reports directly to Kid, and they won't let us into the cells."

"No." Sid whispered.

"Yes," Stein said flatly. "We are going to have to organize a jailbreak for the Mizune sisters."

.

.

"What team is going to fight the Kishin tonight?" Kilik asked.

"I don't have a set idea," Kid replied. "Do you have any groups you want to put forward?"

Kilik looked at the sheet of paper in his hand, already regretting having this meeting with Kid. Not many people wanted to fight the Kishin since it was so out of their comfort zone, but some had grudgingly put their names down. But with Kim and Jackie busy, Soul and Maka occupied with Blaire, BlackStar training all the time, Tsubaki looking after Angela, and Ox and Harvar being particularly unhelpful that day (the nearby convenience store had increased the price of hair gel), he was saddled with making potential pairings while considering requests.

"Uh… there's BlackStar, Fire and Thunder," he said. Kid gave him a withering look.

"Kilik, we all know BlackStar is very skilled. But are you sure you're all right with him handling the twins?"

"Not really," Kilik admitted, glad that Kid understood.

"Does BlackStar have any weapon that he adamantly refuses using?"

"Well, yeah," Kilik admitted. "Harvar and Jackie."

Kid put his head in his hands. "Just tell BlackStar that he can go with Soul- no Patty today."

"Will do," Kilik said, getting up. Kid didn't remove his face from his hands, and Kilik got the vaguest inkling that the Shinigami had fallen asleep. Even though they had never really talked before, Kilik felt a surge of pity for him. Being shoved into the role of a leader so quickly- that couldn't have been easy for anyone. And having to deal with his father's death too… he shuddered and left the room.

.

.

"Maka."

She squirmed, annoyed at the person calling her. Didn't they understand how long it took for her to sleep in this hard hospital chair?

"Maka!"

Wait- hospital chair?

"Maka!"

She jerked up, and Soul hurriedly stepped away from her. So he still remembered the incident four years ago when she punched him when he woke her up. Good. It didn't hurt to keep him on his toes.

"Blaire's up," he said. That was all it took for her to shake off the jacket she was using as a blanket (strange- she'd seen Soul wearing a similar one before) and rush to the bedside.

"They said she'd take a day to come out of her coma!" she whispered fervently.

"Well, Blaire's strong," Soul said dismissively. "Blair- can you hear us? Can you speak?"

The woman feebly raised her head, causing a rush of anger to course through Maka's body. A feeble Blaire? Whoever made her like this would pay. The anger settled in her stomach, where it pulsated tensely.

Blaire nodded, opening her mouth.

Soul and Maka leaned in eagerly.

And no sound came out.

"Right," Maka slapped her forehead. "Nygus-sensei said her vocal chords were damaged."

"What now?" Soul asked. "We'll call Nygus."

"It's two in the morning," Maka glanced at the glowing clock. Huh. Only seven hours ago, BlackStar had darted out of the room, claiming that he and Patty were going to mess up some kishins. Assuming none of them got killed, they should be done with the Kishin right now.

She winced. Them getting killed was NOT something she wanted to think about.

"True," Soul said. "She only said to give Blaire some water when she woke up."

Ten minutes, two spilled bottles and several reproachful glances later; Blaire had managed to get some water down her throat, while Soul wrung water out of his hair. Then there was silence again.

"Blaire," Maka piped up hesitantly. "May I ask you some questions? Nod or shake your head."

Blaire gave her a pointed look, as if to say she'd have figured it out by herself, but nodded anyway, wincing a bit when she did it too fast. Maka cringed, feeling bad that she was asking her to do this, but if they needed information, and this was the only way to get it at the moment.

"What happened to you?" Soul blurted out. Blaire rolled her eyes and glared at him. Maka smacked him lightly on the head.

"Yes or no questions, idiot," she said. He blushed.

"Right. Forgot."

"Do you remember what happened to you?" she asked. Blaire, quirked her head and then nodded.

"Do you know who did… this?" she asked, weakly gesturing to the girl's beat up body. Blaire shook her head ruefully. Soul groaned.

"Did you see their face?" Another shake.

That was odd.

"Did they knock you out immediately?" she asked. Blaire shook her head. Maka's stomach lurched.

"How many hits did they get before you- well- that?" she asked, and before Soul could call her out, "hold up your fingers."

Blaire cocked her head and held up 5 fingers, holding up the other hand with some difficulty as if to say she wasn't sure. Soul sucked in a breath.

"How many people attacked you?" he asked more shakily than she did. Maka didn't really blame him, as he had been exposed to the violence DWMA students were exposed to at a later age than her. The DWMA had gotten some backlash from other countries, which were concerned that the children were seeing too much for their own good. Personally, Maka didn't see anything wrong with the system, probably because she had grown up in it. Weapons and meisters who joined the DWMA had the opportunity to stay in the NOT class, or take counseling sessions to help them deal with what they faced. As far as she knew, Soul didn't opt for either.

Blaire shrugged.

"More than one?"

She shook her head.

Maka sucked in a breath. Who on earth was that strong to be able to defeat a person like Blaire in only five hits?

.

.

 **A/N:**

 **How'd you like it?**

 **Who do you think attacked Blaire? Let me know in the reviews.**

 **Feel free to check out my other fics. I haven't written anything else for Soul Eater (though I plan to in the future), but if you like Fairy Tail or Assassination Classroom, then I think you'd like it.**

 **As always, thank you to all the fantabulous people who reviewed, followed and favorited.**

 **SpiderLover**


	8. Chapter 8

Jimmy stiffled a yawn behind his hand, as Ling glared at him from his stool five feet away from him. Late night duty was the absolute worst. Why did the DWNA even appoint guards for night duty? It wasn't as if prisoners could escape their dank, but secure cells. Ling had told him otherwise, about some witch breaking her meister kid out of their cell a year ago.

A year ago, Jimmy was in college, and now he was regretting coming here. He yawned again, this time not bothering to conceal it.

"Stay sharp, junior," Ling snapped. Ling could get away with calling him junior, because he was some thirty years older than him. Apparently, the older man had seen a lot of weird crap in his life, and was popular amongst guards because he met the original Shinigami. If you did that, then you were considered royalty. Jimmy was not considered royalty. Apparently, seeing the new Shinigami before he became Shinigami was not enough to get one that status. He would know. He tried.

A faint, but definitely real thunk sounded down the hall, failing to drag Jimmy out of his stupor, but forcing Ling into attention.

"You- check it out! And do it yourself," those were the first words anyone said to him that night. Guards weren't allowed to make chatter, and during the night shift, the silence was stifling.

Scratching his stubble and cursing his colleague, Jimmy inched his way down the hall, reluctant to find out what happened. It probably wasn't even that big of a deal: those stupid witch sisters had probably thrown each other against the wall. Stupid chattering kids. They were always talking about 'master' and 'freedom' and 'ice bucket' (ok, the last one might have been his imagination when he was stuck guarding their cell in the dead of the night) But from the pictures circulating the guards outside of work, those girls were _hot_ when they combined into one.

Jimmy had been working in this place long enough to not consider that weird any more.

Wait. Something was happening. There were _shadows_ dancing up the walls. No one else should have been there at this time. Well, screw that. He was _not_ doing this on his own.

"Yo! Ling!" he turned the corner and jogged to where the pair was supposed to sit. And then he jolted to a halt. A scream froze in his throat.

Ling was out cold on the floor.

"Ling!" he whisper-screamed. "Ling!"

And then there was pain from an electric shock, and all went black.

.

.

"Well, we did it," Sid glowered. "We got her- them."

Misune glared at him. "When I'm combined, I go by _she_."

"Right. We got her."

"And why am I here?" the woman glared at the guilty-looking party ahead of her. "And why am I still chained?"

Misune was looking far from her normally alluring self at the moment. She was draped in a burlap dress which hung around her like a sack, and her pink hair was dull and scraggly. Looking at her, Marie felt a pang of sympathy. Despite Misune's crimes, she had been an ally of the DWMA for some time, and it couldn't have been easy to lose Erika like that. She would have a word with whoever managed the prison about mistreating the inmates.

"You are still chained because we can't trust you to not attack us," Stein said sharply. "And you are here because we need answers."

Misune's face hardened. "I told you- I don't know who killed Erika. You think if I did I'd be stewing in this miserable prison? All I know is that it has something to do with the DWMA idiots."

"The DWMA had nothing to do with Erika's death," Nygus snapped. "At the moment, we have got some of our most trusted members on the lookout for Free as well as an ongoing investigation regarding the attacks on the witches."

"Yeah, yeah," the witch snorted. "That Death Scythe Azusa, Clay Sizemore, Akane Hoshi and three idiots from the EAT class."

"How did you come about this information?" Spirit asked.

"Guards talk."

"I see." Clearly, Marie would have to have a word with the guards about revealing sensitive information to convicts to boot.

"So let's get ourselves back on track here," Nygus finally said.

"Yeah, let's," Misune scoffed. "You can tell me why I'm sitting in a lab with stitches on the walls, after being broken out by the new Shinigami's most trusted advisors."

"How much do you know about Medusa's research?" Spirit quickly interjected, before the more hesitant members of the group realized exactly what kind of treason they were committing.

The witch looked genuinely taken aback by the question. "Huh. I dunno. Why do you need to know?"

"It has everything to do with keeping Asura on the moon, and keeping Crona alive too," Marie said.

Misune chewed her lip, looking conflicted. A few years ago, she would have laughed in the DWMA's face if they wanted her to seal Asura anywhere. The witches were pro-Asura Release, and the DWMA was witch enemy number one. But Erika had been the institution's ally for half a year before she died, and had seemed extremely happy there. Of course, some of her happiness stemmed from dating Free, but in general, everyone treated her with respect. Misune smiled ruefully. Mice and Frogs were never even looked at. But that changed. And on the plus side, Medusa's son Crona was on the moon too. Misune and Erika quite liked the child, who never gave them any trouble unlike their mother.

But Erika's death... Maybe this was a good opportunity.

"Maybe I'll do it," she said. "What's in it for me?"

The adults looked around shiftily. Clearly, none of them had planned what to do at that point. Good. At this point, they were likely to make impulsive decisions-

"We'll give you a full pardon from the treason you tried to commit."

-like that.

.

.

"You're taking too long," Maaba hissed, while Kim cringed.

"I'm sorry! It's just that there's so much happening between the resurrected Kishins, Free's disappearance, Crona and Asura's entrapment and the witch attacks that I-"

"I don't want to hear it," the older lady snapped. "Kimial Deil, look at yourself! My top priority is the safety of all other witches. Anything else is secondary. And as a powerful witch, this should be your first priority as well."

Kim fought to keep the harsh retorts at bay. Her first priority? Those sick bastards had emotionally tortured her at a young age, ostracized her for having a non-destructive power, tried to overrule her consent during the whole Morality Manipulation Machine incident (without Ox's intervention, she would have done some pretty stupid stuff), and now expected her to consider herself as one of them? Yes, Kim was now comfortable with being a witch herself, and was content with helping Kid with being the mediator of affairs between the two parties here. And of course, she was willing to help anyone in danger. But see emotionally abusive witches as her top priority? The DWMA was just as important as this, and Kim could hardly be blamed for being required during an emergency.

"She's doing her best," Jackie said icily from Kim's side. Maaba threw her a disdaining look.

"I hardly think that this weapon can have any say in this matter," she said, and as the two girls refused to back down, muttered an ancient spell word for humans under her breath. Since it was ancient, the word had no power on its own, but it was a terrible offensive slur.

Jackie didn't understand it, but Kim did, seething in rage. "You..."

"That was an inappropriate thing to say," Maaba said stiffly, clearly shaken up for using the word herself, "I apologize for saying that only."

Kim had a few more things she would dearly love to say to the witch leader, but swallowed it down. Maaba had apologized, Jackie didn't know what it meant, and Kim couldn't afford to piss her off. After all, Erika was dead, and Misune had quickly been locked up. Maaba and the DWMA had a shaky relationship, with Kid doing everything in his power to keep her happy, and Kim did not want to be the reason for the new Shinigami to have a witch revolt on his hands.

"Jacqueline," Maaba addressed the girl directly, surprising everyone (aka the two girls). "Would you care to wait outside for a few minutes? Kimial will be joining you shortly."

Jackie looked bemused, but after a nod from Kim, slipped out.

"Everything is out of my hands," the old witch said.

"H-huh?"

"I may be blind, but I am not stupid," Maaba continued. "I know what the DWMA is doing to my witches without my permission."

"What do you mean?" Kim hand't heard of any hate crimes towards the witches, other than the murders of a few and the DWMA had absolutely nothing to do with that...

"The Misune sisters," Maaba said.

"Yes, they broke out," Kim affirmed. No point in denying it.

"Not on their own, they didn't," Maaba replied. "They had help from the inside."

The inside? Did she mean someone from the DWMA themselves? But who would be powerful enough to take out the guards while remaining unseen? Who would even do such a thing in the first place?

"Who did it?" she asked.

Maaba's milky eyes turned straight to Kim. Despite her not being able to see, Kim had the feeling that the old witch could see straight through her clothes, her body and into her soul, as if evaluating her loyalty.

"I will not tell you," she concluded. "But my lookout witches observed that they were extremely powerful individuals, all held in high esteem by the Shinigami himself."

What? It was someone Kid knew? And lookout witches?

"I will not take this insult, Kimial," Maaba croaked. "There will be consequences."

And with that, the doors opened on their own, and that was Kim's cue to leave the room, head spinning.

.

.

"Well it was great of you to call me here, Tsubaki," Liz slipped her shoes off and stretched. "It's been, like, forever. I mean, with the hate crimes, Crona and the resurrected Kishin thing, a girl's gotta have some kind of down time. Now, try mentioning anything to do with relaxation in front of Kid, and watch the sparks fly- literally. What are we going to start off with? Ooh- I was thinking a pedicure, and..."

Gulping, Tsubaki decided to ignore Liz's rambling, and a familiar feeling of uneasiness bubbled up her stomach as she was reminded of how different they were. Tsubaki had been brought up in a staunch environment, where she had to always watch what she said, as weights of tradition and responsibility were thrust upon her, uncaring about her relationships with everyone else. Liz, on the other hand, had her entire life yanked out from under her feet when she was four and had to fend for herself in a cutthroat world, unsympathetic to two young orphans. Before that? Liz wasn't so open. Tsubaki _had_ heard Liz talking about strange men during the night, and bulk amounts of money, but she didn't know any details.

But the point was being so different was difficult. Of all the people in the Spartoi, Liz and Tsubaki were the oldest members and had very different thought processes than the other teenagers and preteens. They really should have been able to relate to each other. But Liz's childhood had been a nightmare, and while Tsubaki's hadn't been a walk in the park either, it was different. The two would never to have a naturally close bond, or so she thought.

 _Make do with what you have_ , she told herself sternly. Liz was the most logical person to tell this to, and was the least likely to beat up anyone after hearing the news (cue in the not so subtle reference to Maka, BlackStar and Patty). Ideally, Tsubaki would go straight to Kid, but that wasn't an option right now.

"I need your help," she said, effectively cutting off the blonde.

"Anything," Liz said warily.

"Yesterday, when BlackStar and I went to see Blaire, I was taking Angela to the bathroom when I heard Marie-sensei and Nygus-sensei talking."

"Odd combo," Liz remarked, Tsubaki agreeing.

"They were talking about something really... suspicious. It was about Crona."

Liz sucked in a breath. "Spirit forbid everyone from talking about him _through Kid_! What were they thinking? How can Kid let this happen?"

"That's the thing," Tsubaki took a deep breath. Liz had to know this. "I think Spirit-sensei is a part of this too. And I don't think Kid knows about this either"

"What?" Liz yelled, making Tsubaki silently pray for her eardrums. "You're kidding. What are they doing?"

"I'm not too sure," Tsubaki conceded. "They mentioned something about BREW being on the moon."

"BREW?" Liz wrinkled her nose. "You mean that box that we were supposed to be getting out of the time warp a year ago?"

"That's the one. They also mentioned rescuing Crona."

Liz's eyes almost bugged out of her head. "No way. No way at all. It's forbidden."

"But what do we do?" Tsubaki asked. "They're our teachers!"

"Who are committing treason," Liz said harshly, sounding more hard than Tsubaki had ever heard her before. "Who else is in on this?"

"Again, I'm not certain," oh she hated not being certain. "But Nygus-sensei mentioned that they have more people on their team."

"I bet you anything it's Stein and Sid," Liz grumbled. "With Marie shooting off hormones everywhere and Sid and Nygus being disgustingly close, there's no way that they wouldn't know. Are the others aware of this?"

The Spartoi? "I don't think so," Tsubaki said. "They mentioned that they'd have to tell us soon."

"This is ridiculous," Liz stood up. "We gotta tell Kid."

"Wait!" Tsubaki said. "Are you sure?"

Liz looked at her as if she was crazy. "Hello, Tsubaki? _Treason_?"

Tsubaki grabbed her arm. "Please listen to me," she begged, and Liz grudgingly sat down. "Let's give them the benefit of doubt," she said. "There has to be a good reason why they didn't tell us."

"Good reason?" Liz scoffed. "More like Spirit saw how messed up Maka was after the moon incident and wanted her to have nothing more to do with it."

That was actually a good point. "Let's just wait to see what happens. After all, we want Crona back."

Liz pursed her lips, and Tsubaki could easily see her mental conflict. On one had, she was Kid's weapon and was obligated to tell him everything being hid from him, especially since he was in a position of power. On the other hand, she had known her teachers for years and it was highly unlikely that they would do anything that wasn't in the DWMA's best interests. Moreover, if what the adults were doing had any chance of bringing back Crona, then Liz would definitely not interfere with it.

"Fine," she forced out. "I won't tell, I promise-"

Tsubaki heaved a sigh of relief.

"- provided that we do some snooping around ourselves."

Oh. Oh dear.

.

.

Mira Nygus entered the hospital wing, to be greeted with one of the saddest sights ever. On a bed was a disgruntled Blair, with Maka hovering over her, talking a mile a minute, and Soul asleep against the wall _while he was standing_. The meister- weapon duo sported dark circles and ashen skin. Blaire just looked more annoyed than anything else, which honestly was amazing, considering what she had just been through.

Maka was the first to spot her. "Sensei!" she said. "Blaire is awake," she said, rather unnecessarily.

"How are you?" Nygus quickly asked. Blaire gave Maka a pointed look.

"She can't speak," the girl said sheepishly, while Nygus grimaced- she forgot, "so I suppose Soul and I would have to tell you. Wake up!" The last part was meant for the weapon, who jerked awake quickly, mumbling a plethora of excuses for being asleep, ranging from meditation to existential crisis.

"Blaire does not know who attacked her, nor did she see the assaulter's face," Maka begun, ignoring Soul. "And the single person knocked her out in five hits."

"Five?" Nygus repeated in disbelief. "One person?"

"Yep," Soul said. "D'you have any idea of who it could be?"

Nygus hesitated, and then shook her head. "The few I could think of are dead. But it is very strange... both the witches attacked are strong allies of the DWMA-"

She broke off, noticing the trio looking towards her expectantly. "I'm sure we will find the attacker soon," she quickly said. "The Shinigami and his team are working towards it."

Maka frowned briefly, but made no move to question anything Nygus said. Soul stood stony-faced. That was good- the last thing Nygus needed was the duo poking their noses in the teachers' business and then finding out what their real plans were.

.

.

 **How'd you like it?**

 **This chapter was a bit longer than the recent others (3k words). It's only now that I've been finding the time to write, and I've just got back in a groove. Let's hope it lasts.**

 **Also, the irony. While Nygus is worrying about Soul and Maka doing something stupid (again), Tsubaki and Liz are already at it.**

 **This chapter actually gives some clues about what may happen in the future. I thought it was pretty subtle, but it can probably be spotted from a mile away. Ah well, I'll (eventually) get better at this.**

 **Anyway, thank you to those wonderful people who followed, favorited and reviewed. I appreciate you all!**

 **Until next time,**

 **SpiderLover**


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